2026-09-15 01:37 UTC
Targeted flattery-spam/phishing aimed at harmless academics like me is leveling up! Book Club rubbish is so last month. Thanks, LLMs! I just got a highly elaborate six-paragraph one “from” Emily St John Mandel (of Station Eleven fame). The choice of author to impersonate is really quite clever. Like the book club spam, it’s trawling for somewhat vain people who are susceptible to flattery, which of course excludes academic authors [puts hand to ear] sorry I’m just getting an update
Replies (1)
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@kims@mas.to 2026-09-15 05:00
@kjhealy@mastodon.social I think of Emily St John Mandel as the author who wrote an entire book about a hedge fund manager without ever using the words "hedge fund"