What Does a Scam Email Look Like?
Just Like This
Hey friends,
Excellent writer and podcaster Doree Shafrir posted the other day that she got a scam email from a “publisher” and unfortunately, I was not surprised. If you follow Writer Beware (see our interview with Victoria Strauss here!), you know publishing scam emails are all over the place. There are scammers out there impersonating literary agents, publishers, and more. Fun! If you haven’t been on the receiving end of one of these scam emails, you may wonder what they look like. And today, I’m going to show you how to spot a scam like a pro.
Here is the scam email—thanks for sharing it with us, Doree!—with my notes.
And here’s how to tell it’s a scam:
1. Always check the email address.
This is one of the biggest tells in any scam email. Yes, it’s possible to spoof an email so that it looks like it’s coming from a legit source, but most often the scammer is hoping you A: don’t know the sender’s real email address, B: aren’t paying attention, or C: both. The biggest mistake in this scam email address is the S at the end. Publishings??? What publisher ever describes their company like this. Please look oat our recently publishings. ????? No.
On top of this, Macmillan, a big four publisher in New York, does not format their email addresses like this. The US arm of Macmillan uses an publishing division-specific email suffix, like @stamartins.com or @tor.com. They also use @macmillan.com. Of course I know these off the top of my head, and it is reasonable to assume you do not. If you want to double check, go to the publisher’s website and look for the Contact Us page. There you’ll see see general email addresses like sales@macmillan.com or publicity@harpercollins.com. That bit at the end is how 99% of the company’s email addresses are formatted. If you don’t see what you’re looking for on that page, try googling something basic like “sales@macmillanpublishings.com” and see if you get any hits. When you don’t, it’s probably a scam. And even better, you might find it on the publisher’s list of known scam addresses!
2. Check how the publisher refers to themselves.
Zero people in the world call the US arm of Macmillan “Macmillan NY.” No ones says Random House NY or Hachette NY or Chronicle CA (they’re in San Francisco.) I can’t think of a single publisher that differentiates their international divisions by state. We just don’t do that??? Without a lot of publishing experience, you’re not going to catch something like this. But now you know. Double check the most basic details and the scam really starts to show.
3. How did they find you?
It’s unclear to me how Arthur even found Doree in the example above. What is an “endorsement request?” Like a blurb? But then why would Macmillan receive a blurb request from a “trusted agency” (?????) for a book they did not publish, that came out in 2021???? This is word salad. It makes no sense. Whatever this is does not exist in publishing. If it’s unclear why they’re reaching out to you or how they found you and they’re just using publishing-sounding words to look official, it’s a scam.
Until you’re experienced enough in publishing to recognize this from the jump, look for how they’re trying to legitimize themselves. How are they trying to make this email sound legit? Can you follow any of the threads back to something you recognize, a name you know, a contact you’ve made? While it is possible for a publishing professional to read your article or story or newsletter and reach out, they usually very plainly say that. If they’re jumping through hoops to make a connection to you or your work, that’s a red flag.
4. What are they asking for? What are they offering?
Arthur Bradshaw, a person who does not exist, wants to “support” Doree’s work. Isn’t that nice? But also, like, how? If they want to promote her four year old memoir, that is ok, I guess??????? But they wouldn’t do that. Macmillan didn’t publish this book and if they did, Doree would be hearing from her editor, not someone from Macmillan Ethics and Compliance. (LOLLLLLLLLLL) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
If you get a scam email, pinpoint what they’re asking for or offering. Is it reasonable? Is it likely? Is it possible? Poke at the contents of the actual email and see if it seems plausible. I have never once in my entire career heard of anyone cold emailing an author with a cash money book deal ready to go before they even introduced themselves. I have never emailed an author and offered them representation without talking to them first. I know we all want to be plucked out of obscurity and handed a book deal, but it just doesn’t happen that way. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
5. Check the physical address.
A good scammer will do the barest of google searches and make sure they have the freaking address correct. Arthur here did not! Macmillan held offices at this address, the iconic Flatiron building until 2019 when they moved downtown to 120 Broadway. Like with email addresses, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to recognize any publishers’ physical address by sight. But you can google it. It might be correct and that scammer did their due diligence. But if it’s wrong, you’ll know for a fact it’s a scam.
I hope you’re feeling confident that you can spot any scammer now and stop them in their tracks. If you do see a scammer in the wild, report them to Writer Beware and put them on blast on social media. Tell your friends so they won’t fall for a scam either. Be safe out there, friends!
XOXOXOXO,
Kate
Thank you for this service, Kate. Someone was impersonating me a few years back and, although I’ll never know what damage they may have gotten away with, I got it shut down. I wanted to alert you and your readers that there’s a typo in your sample legitimate emails: it’s @stmartins.com, not @stamartins.com.
Ugh I get so many of these. For my already-published children's book no less! Thanks for this.