While I am embarrassed to share this, I think it is instructive. And maybe it will also ease my shame if I lay it all out.
I was scammed, and here are the basics:
First, you need a gullible mark, someone vulnerable to the scam (that would be me).
Second, you need a person or persons without a moral compass (that would be more people than I would like to think).
Third, you need a mechanism that makes it easy and profitable to pull off the swindle (AI and various payment apps).
Let me explain.
Several months ago, I sent my book, More Than Matzoh Balls, to Joe Donahue, the host of the Book Show on WAMC, our local NPR station. I hoped he would see its merit and offer me an interview. Time went by, and I heard nothing until last week when I received a flattering, detailed email inviting me to an interview. I looked quickly at the return address – I didn’t fully examine it (my first mistake).
This is some of the text of that email:
I was drawn to More than Matzoh Balls and its reflective exploration of Jewish-American identity. Your coming-of-age story in mid-20th-century Brooklyn, tracing family history, cultural assimilation, faith, and trauma inherited from the Holocaust, really stayed with me, especially how you blend personal narrative, generational history, and social commentary in clear, emotionally grounded prose.
I also appreciated how your intimate yet accessible tone combines family nostalgia with sociocultural insight.
I would be delighted to invite you for an interview to discuss your work, the themes of identity, family, and memory, and what you hope readers take away from this memoir.
I’ve been hosting author interviews for over 25 years and have had the privilege of speaking with writers like Toni Morrison, Kurt Vonnegut, and Stephen King. I always aim to give authors a thoughtful, respectful conversation.
If you are available, I would be pleased to coordinate a recording session at your convenience in the coming weeks. Our interviews typically run 15 to 20 minutes and can be recorded remotely.
Thank you for considering this invitation.
Looking forward to the conversation,
Nice, right?
I was excited. After all, Joe Donahue is a skilled interviewer, and his show has a wide audience. What an opportunity for me!
I responded by saying as much. I received another email asking me about my availability. I offered several dates and times, including the option of coming to the studio since I live locally. He said Zoom would be best (my next clue that something was likely amiss because my offer to do it in person wasn’t acknowledged). He suggested September 24th at 10:00 a.m. (my third alarm – he is usually hosting The Roundtable at that time, but I dismissed that as maybe something pre-recorded was going to be playing then). I agreed, and I put it on my calendar and shared my excitement with some friends and family.
After a bit of time, another email came:
Dear Linda,
Thank you. I have you confirmed for Thursday, September 24 at 10:00 AM ET. I will send the talking points and Zoom link closer to the date.
There is one additional matter I should have mentioned earlier, and I apologize for the oversight.
To support the production and promotion of your interview, we invite our guest authors to make a modest contribution of $150. This helps cover editing, promotional materials, and distribution across our broadcast and streaming platforms, ensuring your interview reaches the widest possible audience.
Your memoir is a thoughtful and moving work, and I believe this conversation will resonate with our listeners. This contribution is simply our way of ensuring it receives the production quality and reach it deserves.
I will follow up with the details on how to arrange this.
Thank you again, Linda. I look forward to speaking with you on the 24th.
Best regards,
At this point, you might be thinking: Does she need to be hit over the head before she realizes that this isn’t legit? Apparently, yes, because I did as they asked – and sent it to the link that was provided in the next email.
While I did that, my mind was putting these things together. I knew, in my heart of hearts, that they would not ask for a donation/payment. I tried to ignore that part and instead focus on my excitement about the interview and the opportunity it represented.
That could only last so long. Eventually, it all caught up in my brain. Two days later, when it did, I brought up the original email and looked more closely at the sender’s address. While the beginning part looked genuine, it was a Gmail account. That made no sense. I could no longer live in denial. I felt foolish, and a wave of nausea came over me.
I had this realization while Gary and I were leaving a lecture and scheduled to attend another function. While I might have been able to handle some of the “undoing” of this on my phone, I needed to think through the steps, and it would be easier from my laptop. I decided to wait until we got home that night. Meanwhile, I stewed. I was angry, mostly at myself. I was ashamed of being so easily taken. I was seriously disappointed that this great opportunity had just evaporated. I was, and still feel, sad that there are so many people who are willing to take advantage of others. I should mention that I get two or three phony emails a day – from editors (people posing as editors), marketers (people posing as marketers), literary agents….you get the idea. These emails I generally recognize as cons, though some of them, at first blush, are quite convincing. Sometimes I send them to my daughter, and she tells me they are scams.
I believe one reason these solicitations are so effective is the use of AI. The text of the book, reviews, my blog, all the PR we’ve generated, is all out there. It is possible to generate a very detailed, personalized cover letter without doing much work. Before AI, these scams would be far more labor-intensive to be effective.
So, what can we do about it?
What I have done so far is: put in a refund request to PayPal, report it to the FTC, report it to an organization that is monitoring this sort of thing, email the radio station to let them know, and share that it happened in various ways – including this blog post. Now each time I get a phony email, I am forwarding it to reportphishing@apwg.org. I don’t know what they can do about it, but hopefully others won’t fall prey to this scheme.
One other suggestion, which I will share with Joe Donahue and The Book Show. When an author sends a book, send a simple email acknowledgment saying thank you, and if we are interested, you will hear only from this email address, and we will never include a solicitation. When you hear nothing, it allows your imagination to fill in the blanks. To be clear, I am not blaming WAMC or Joe Donahue, but it is a relatively simple step that perhaps could save some agita. The other scammers, literary agents, marketers, etc., are a little easier to recognize since, in 99.9% of the cases, I have not reached out to them. I am aware enough to realize that some agent in New York City isn’t randomly going to reach out to me.
This has been a disappointing and painful experience on so many levels. I will try hard not to let it poison what has been an almost entirely positive adventure with my book. I hope someone can learn from my sharing it.
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