Occasionally a phishing email will make me feel sad for the scammer. I’m concerned that some of them lack skills needed to succeed in their chosen extractive trade. I received this “lure” from Natascha yesterday:
I understand that there are even sadder people who fall for these things, but come on. Really, Natascha? This is what you’re going with? This is your pitch?
Yet I want to thank you. Your appeal is so delightfully clumsy in its phoniness.
10 Comments
It is possible that this apparent incompetence is designed to select out the slightly gullible marks, to leave just the really gullible and illiterate ones.
‘slightly gullible marks’ are those likely to smell a rat further down the line and are thus time-wasters.
16 August 2011 at 5:14 am
That sounds plausible. So maybe I don’t have to worry about Natascha’s career prospects, with new customers being born every minute.
16 August 2011 at 2:37 pm
Yup. Never underestimate the cunning & lack of scruples of a conman in parting the feeble-minded from their money. Sure, there are also the feeble-minded who attempt similar cons, but they’re probably just patsies planted by the conman.
Anyway, this http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20110816/10460415550/dear-mpaa-stomp-your-feet-repeat-it-as-many-times-as-you-want-infringement-is-not-theft.shtml#c364 reminded me of that author (if it wasn’t you) who wrote the series of murderous spider stories on this site.
17 August 2011 at 6:41 pm
Ah, Fritzi. I wonder what ever happened to her? :-)
17 August 2011 at 7:46 pm
I’m still mystified as to the whole guest blogger thing that started with Fritzi, whether it was you dabbling with fiction, or a guest author, who as yet remains unknown…
18 August 2011 at 4:59 am
I should add, that maybe the guest blogger was the real you, a highly talented short-story writer, but Scott Carpenter is a nom de plume invented for dabblings/interaction in issues of free culture, copyleft, etc.
18 August 2011 at 5:04 am
Thanks, Crosbie. You flatter me with the “highly talented” comment, and my vanity compels me to own up to my authorship of “The Tale of Itsy Bitsy Fritsy.” :-)
I seem to have a hard time committing to my plans of writing more, whether fiction or non-fiction. Maybe I’ll have to take my latest abandoned story out of the trunk and see if anything can be done with it, or just start writing something new today…
18 August 2011 at 6:43 am
Why not try, just for the hell of it, wrapping up your story into an eBook and sell copies of it? For example, offer the eBook at $1.99 a copy, and the PDF version as a free preview download. Yes, this is perverse, but we are passing through the chaotic transition of a copyright to a post-copyright world.
Anyway, I think it’s important that the author of a story has an identity readily associated with their work so that their reputation can build. Few will recommend an author to their friends, let alone ask one to write more if they must spend effort tracking them down in order to identify or communicate with them.
The market for writing has not ended, only the market for copies is disintegrating, along with the disappearance of the traditional buyer of authors’ writing. Your customers are no longer your printers, but your readers.
21 August 2011 at 6:34 am
Crosbie, your comment caused me spend a lot of time today learning how to format for the Kindle and preparing the story for upload to Amazon. I’m planning to publish Itsy Bitsy Fritsy for $0.99. I don’t know about a preview PDF version, but the ebooks will have the CC ShareAlike license and will point back to the “free as in freedom and beer” version here.
21 August 2011 at 9:57 pm
Let’s see how it goes, but at least you’ve now put some bait on your hook. ;-)
There are many readers out there in the ocean, but only a few are hungry for more of your bait. Find ‘em!
Bigger bait! Bigger hooks! Better bait! A bigger boat!
23 August 2011 at 12:59 pm