Is Substack Being Flooded with Con Artists?

These people will shamelessly use your vulnerabilities and darkest moments against you for their financial gain

[Trigger warning: reference to depression and suicidal thoughts]

Since starting my Substack account a little over three months ago, I have come across numerous authors, many of whom are well-known and who have written one or more bestselling novels. I’ve followed a few of them. They haven’t followed me back, and I never expected them to. I’m just a nobody from a small rural town. These are people with incredibly busy lives—attending release parties, meet-and-greets, readings, and endless meetings with publishers, editors, agents, and advertisers. Some have even worked in Hollywood, bringing their stories to life on the big screen. Success and fame come with new obligations and relentless schedules, and many of them also have families to care for. They simply don’t have time to follow everyone who crosses their social media feed. So, I was truly surprised when John Green—as in the author of The Fault in our Stars and many other YA novels—followed me back. I would probably even say that I was shocked, but I had a vague recollection of reading that he’s been known to have discussions with some of his fans. I did notice, however, that Mr. Green had a very low number of subscribers but I didn’t find that odd because many people have recently left Twitter/X or other platforms to join the intellectual paradise that is the Substack Community. He was new to the platform and I had commented on his post about a new project that he was working on. Though John didn’t go into great detail as to what this project was, he did say that it relates to people’s experiences with depression and anxiety. I’m quite well acquainted with those two knuckleheads, plus it’s John Green! How could I refuse that opportunity?

John began asking me questions about where I grew up and where I currently live. These seemed to be fitting questions from someone who would be building a setting. What I should have seen as a red flag and for whatever reason, failed to question, was that he asked if I would be willing to chat on WhatsApp for privacy reasons. Maybe I was just so elated that he’d take an interest in me — and my writing — that my brain was too busy doing the floss, or some other celebratory dance, to access its common sense. Or perhaps, I’m just that gullible.

When I worked at the bank, one of the major red flags we told people to watch out for was poor grammar and spelling. However, this was over a decade ago—long before the days of ChatGPT.

This person didn’t have any spelling errors, nor did I see anything grammatical that was bad enough to stand out. The messages didn’t read like a John Green novel but they were essentially text messages, not professionally edited literature. The thought that someone could be using AI should have crossed my mind but it didn’t. Not at this point, anyway. What I underlined in the screenshot image below was strange. It wasn’t the grammar or the spelling, though. It was the context. I had asked if he had read any of my Substack posts. I was asking this to avoid explaining information of which he had prior knowledge. He said “I read through your comment.” Again I didn’t second guess this until much later, but what are the chances that someone who writes for a living would misconstrue this? On the other hand, maybe we could chalk it up to human error.

This backstory is a bit long but please be patient. I’ll get to the point.

As the conversation went on, I began spilling my guts. I had told “Mr. Green” that I had come really close to ending my life a year ago. I didn’t go into all the reasons why my depression had been more severe than typical for me. I had told him about some of my childhood trauma but there were more recent stressors overwhelming me that I didn’t mention. The catalyst was that we were in so much debt that we couldn’t pay our bills. But it was more than that. Perimenopause symptoms were beginning to surface. It was exacerbating my anxiety and unexpectedly, it was worsening my AuDHD tendencies. Migraines increased, my mood shifted constantly and I wasn’t sleeping well. So many life changes were taking place. My daughter was getting ready to move halfway across the country to attend The University of Chicago. I was excited for her, of course but she had been growing so cold and distant with me. I felt like I was losing her. My husband has had vices through our entire relationship; first OxyContin and other opioids, then gambling and sports betting. We have gone through cycles of these addictive behaviors, promises to stop, periods of calm, repeat. He would often remind me that his wealthy grandmother wasn’t doing well and we would eventually get an inheritance and our finances would not be so strained. But when it finally happened, I found out there wasn’t as much as everyone had thought and his parents needed every penny for their retirement. Suddenly what had always been a safety net in the back of my mind, became merely a rug that was pulled out from underneath me. I realize how bad this all sounds and counting on such a thing is pretty morbid. Why did I stay with him all these years? I know I must sound like a fool. Though I don’t have concrete answers, I will say that despite everything, I love him. I see the good in him when he comes home from work and makes dinner almost every night and the way he will drive the kids wherever they need to go because he understands how bad my driving anxiety can be. I think of how from the time we first started dating, if my son had a stomach illness, he always took care of any vomit incidents because he had seen my visceral reactions to this. I turn grey and can’t see or stand, so I need to take breaks and leave the room.

My point is that he has done bad things, but he’s a loving husband and father. I left my son’s father because he could be extremely cruel. I knew it was for the best, but it was so hard on that kid. I’ve never had the heart to put our other kids through that pain. To make a long story short, I just want to paint the picture that the overwhelm I was experiencing was coming at me from every direction.

I confessed a weak moment to this man and it didn’t seem to give him pause.

It wasn’t merely financial but that was the main explanation I had given to this person who I was texting. He responded very sympathetically. I felt sickened to my core when I realized he knew how close I had come. He knew that a big part of my stress was financial. And yet, he was ready to take money from me, anyway. I’m not sure why I found it so surprising that a scammer would be so lacking a conscience, he would continue this pursuit even after realizing that the person he spoke to was that vulnerable.

It wasn’t until he asked where I stand now, financially, that I felt like something seemed off. That is quite a personal question and not very professional. I began seriously questioning if this person was who he claimed to be. I wanted my suspicions to be wrong but I had a sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach.

This video is far from convincing. It’s visibly clipped and spliced together, and the background changes. Why not just do it all in one take? He doesn’t even address me by name. Why would an intelligent person make a video that way, especially if the goal was to convince me that I wasn’t being deceived? It didn’t look promising but a part of me still hoped I was wrong. I showed it to my ten year old and asked if it looked like AI. She informed me that not only was it fake, for an AI video, it was really bad quality and she had seen much better. It’s funny how knowledgeable my kids are when it comes to modern technology and how quickly I’m losing touch with these things.

I felt ashamed for being so gullible. I felt sick that I had divulged my first and last name, as well as the name of my small town to this person. Because I had used WhatsApp, he had my phone number now as well. As irrational as it may be, I had a genuine fear that I put myself and my kids in an unsafe situation. Tears rolled down my cheeks as this realization sunk in. I didn’t want to admit to it, but I didn’t want anyone else to fall for it either so I posted about it in notes. A few people responded with stories of similar experiences. They were kind and reassuring and it did make me feel much calmer.

Next I thought to Google it and I found this article:

How I Used ChatGPT to Catch a Publishing Scammer Pretending to be John Green by Roz Morris

Not only is this horrible for those on the receiving end of the grift, someone has been impersonating John Green, making him a victim as well. I contacted Roz, who was incredibly helpful and supportive. She gave me phone numbers and email addresses for different reporting agencies to contact. I’m going to include this information so that if this happens to anyone else, they can report it too.

Federal Trade Commission Fraud Reporting

I hoped that this would be the end of it but I was chatting with someone earlier today who was asking questions about art. Suddenly she asked if I wanted to talk on WhatsApp. I declined and told her that someone had asked me to use that app and attempted to scam me. “How did you involve yourself in a scam?” She asked. Is it just me, or does that phrasing sound like gaslighting?

The “Okay cool” was a classy touch. 🙄

I couldn’t help wonder if this was the same person I was speaking with the day before. Or was this someone else? Throughout the day, my direct messages were being bombarded with these types of messages. They tend to start out with “Hey there” or “Hi Beautiful.” I typically get one or two of these in a week. Today I got about thirty of these messages.

Is Substack being flooded with grifters?

Could all of these accounts be the same person/group of people?

Or did the person I spoke with yesterday sell my phone number?

What is going on here and is there a way to stop it?

I love the genuine and neighborly Substack community and I hope that they can find a way to put a stop to this illegal activity.

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Have you ever found yourself in a similar situation?

Share your experience in the comments.

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