I’m glad to see you got some options to report these scams. Hopefully that makes you feel more in control of the situation. I’m sorry you’ve had to go through this, but you are in no way gullible of anything. The world needs more people like you.
Hi. I block about one or two people a day. Four of them I recognize from your screen shot. I’ve had three fake celebrities follow me and I reported them. That’s about all you can do.
It’s crazy! I swear I was getting nowhere near this many before this happened. I got about 30 yesterday and I’d guess at least 15 today but I’m trying to ignore them. I feel dumb for asking this, but is there a way to delete some of my direct messages?
Thank you for wrting this and sharing your experience. It is well worth conversations. I have had reach outs in DM’s from people, and they seem to be increasing. Vigilance and support for each other is one of the ways to stop the encroachment of the scam and grift segment from infilitrating Substck.
You’re welcome and I agree. I’ve had so many positive experiences through this platform and met the most amazing and good hearted people. These connections are vital, especially with so much anger and chaos in the world right now. It’s sad to question whether or not to trust direct messages because I genuinely enjoy connecting with this community.🩷
I agree with you completely. Being on substack is a tremendously gratifying and positive experience for me, and this will not taint that for me. I do notice how often these fake profiles vanish from the platform.
Two woman have tried to scam me, one after posting about Gaza so I can’t help but think it was Israeli being that I have read they work that way against their political opponents. I hate to say this being close friends are Jewish.
And another scammer pretended to be a Ukrainian woman soldier. I finally typed her name in a search engine and found out the name and photo was of a well known scammer.
There are so many scammers working in the USA. I can’t help but think that we live in the USA of scam. Particularly when the biggest scammer is in the White House.
And to add the scammer that said she was from Ukarain tried to get me to contact her on telegram. After reading what telegram was that really sent up red flags.
I had similar on this platform. He told me he was intrigued by my writing. I explained that I had only made comments and had not written any full length pieces. I then got a very lovely, well written and convincing response that he was interested nonetheless and would I tell him about what the influences in my childhood were. I thought the whole thing odd so replied that I was busy and would get back to him. I then became very suspicious that he was a scammer and his response was likely AI generated.
This happened to me on Facebook. I commented to governor andy beshear. An innocuous reply. But I got an answer. “PM me.” I did and had a couple of responses. I expressed political support and talked about Helene recovery in western NC. Then came “Do you have TG?” “What’s that?” “Telegram.” That was my red flag. I kept stalling long enough to copy the responses and report to the Governor’s office. I stopped responding before giving access on Telegram, an encrypted site created by Russia. We need to be ever vigilant. BTW the original PM disappeared from the fb page.
I’d never heard of telegram… thank you for explaining that!
Not questioning why he wanted to switch apps was a big part of the reason why I was upset with myself because I feel like that's something I would normally question. I think the only reason I didn’t is because he presented himself as well-spoken and it never donned on me that he could be using AI, not at that point, anyway.
No, Telegram is a good app that a lot of good people use. The red flag, in my opinion, is that he wanted to switch to another app so fast and for no good reason.
OMG, I was actually thinking of posting about this very thing when I saw your excellent article here. I’m relatively new to Substack and am embarrassed to say I fell pretty quickly for the first guy who wanted to “Chat” and then started asking personal questions - What kind of job did I have? What were my favourite hobbies? The first thing I did was tell him that I was happily married for over 30 - THIRTY years! Obviously no spring chicken!!! I told him I have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer…. Still he kept on, calling me dear, wanting me to give him my phone number, join What’s App etc. etc. He kept messaging me, wanting to chat more, but I have a life and was getting pretty frustrated. Then he asked me what I was doing, what had I done during the day etc. I had it. I said I had to go and make dinner. He said - “Message me as soon as you’re done”. Holy Cow. So he was blocked and since then I’ve had at least four or five similar situations - one just earlier tonight. Lolol, he says he is Jason Statham!!! That made me roar out loud! They usually use the word “Dear” ….. as in “How are you doing, dear?” and usually say you’re beautiful etc. etc. blah blah blah. Anyways, all of these are blocked straight away now! What a waste of time and energy!
Welp, I just got spammed again. This person used a TV character’s name from a TV show I hadn’t heard of and said they were from the city the show was set in.
The weird thing about the TS account is it came up in the Substack suggestions. I’m guessing that doesn’t mean those accounts are approved by Substack. I subscribed but when I realized she only had a handful of subscribers, I just thought—there’s no way.
I doubt they’ll reach out because I sent the following direct message:
I’m assuming this account isn’t legitimate, due to the number of posts and the number of subscribers.
Ai is getting scary—as it can be so easily corrupted by its users. It used to be that scams were often easy to sus out, often due to poor grammar and spelling. Alas, this is no longer the case. Just a few weeks ago, I truly thought I was speaking to author, John Green. My heart soared at the thought that he had taken an interest in my writing and wanted to work with me. This is a problem on multiple levels. It hurts the people who start to believe that they are finally getting their big break. It also hurts the person they’re portraying—it’s identity theft. It’s breaking down trust on both sides and make no mistake, it’s fraud.
Perhaps people think that someone’s fame (coupled with easier access to them and their intellectual properties via the internet) is an invitation for exploitation. Some seem to view celebrities as entities, rather than human beings. Taylor has been exposed and exploited (probably) more than anyone else in the industry. She puts up a strong front and a brave face but has also shared that the negative attention related to her fame has caused significant trauma in her life. She doesn’t deserve it. John Green doesn’t deserve it—nobody does.
I don’t fully understand the endgame for these types of scams but I do know that there are easier ways to earn a living.
I prefer Substack to other forms of social media because of the purity of the platform as well as the honesty and compassion of the community here. I don’t want to see Substack become overrun with preying wolves prey.
I mean I really got hooked in. This person was fumbling around a chat thread on another Substack and I thought they were actually confused. So I tried to explain how the app works, blah blah blah, then they want to DM and I finally tried to google their name. It was a character off of a show called Leverage and the setting for the later seasons was in Portland. Where did this person tell me they were from? Portland. Ugh.
I think I just found another one… Taylor Swift. Looks more legitimate than the John Green one but on what planet would actual Taylor Swift have only 41 subscribers?!
This is truly horrific and I'm so sorry you had to go through this. Everywhere online is a scammer's paradise. I am suspicious of everyone, and take care around everyone. There's another person out there who I suspect is one. I daren't mention his name here but I am very suspicious of him. Will be watching and waiting. Keep safe. Jo xx
Everything is being flooded with con artists 🤯. I’m just ignoring, denying or blocking everything from in person to on line I don’t know. Trying to use google less and rely on my Apple apps and iPhone that at least appears to try and reduce my noise options
I imagine you’re inundated by unsolicited advice at this point, so forgive me if you’ve already started doing this. Two things:
Since subscribing means the other person now has my e-mail address, I’ve started being more careful about who I subscribe to. Before subscribing, I read their profile and also see if they have any posts. If they look like they might be a scammer, I don’t subscribe.
In my settings, I make it so only subscribers can send me messages. This has greatly reduced the number of clueless mid-aged men who appear to be looking for a girlfriend and have no interest in my writing or theirs. 😆
I hope she is too. She has met some real “winners”. I frequently worry about her. But she's like my baby sister so I guess that's my job, lol. She was just a kid when Josh and I started dating.
I wouldn’t use any app that required background checks — no way am I submitting my SSN to them. I’m sure (or I hope) your sister-in-law’s careful about her behavior.
I tend to feel like those ones are scammers. If they wanted a date, why not use a dating site instead. I get them when I play words with friends. The first time someone messaged me on there, I responded and quickly realized they were looking to pull a con.
You’re probably right. For some of them, though, their style must get them zero dates on dating apps, so they might be casting a wide net in order to find love. A lot of people seem to like the idea of using the world wide web as a matchmaker. That’s why when I use dating apps, I unmatch anyone who doesn’t want to meet in real life within the first month. 😆
Wow, I'm so sorry this happened to you. There's a lot of spam in DMs 😞 thank you for sharing so vulnerably
Holy shit this is crazy. So sorry this happened to you!!
I do feel partially to blame for believing it but they clearly used AI and AI can be scary convincing!
Totally on the AI part. It never would’ve dawned on me that there would be a fake author account.
I’m glad to see you got some options to report these scams. Hopefully that makes you feel more in control of the situation. I’m sorry you’ve had to go through this, but you are in no way gullible of anything. The world needs more people like you.
Thank you Brian!
I have definitely felt better after talking to people about it. 🥰
Really glad to hear. You’re not alone in this.
Hi. I block about one or two people a day. Four of them I recognize from your screen shot. I’ve had three fake celebrities follow me and I reported them. That’s about all you can do.
It’s crazy! I swear I was getting nowhere near this many before this happened. I got about 30 yesterday and I’d guess at least 15 today but I’m trying to ignore them. I feel dumb for asking this, but is there a way to delete some of my direct messages?
I don’t think so. You can mute them or report them. If they are scammers you should report them.
Maybe when you report them, then they can delete the scammers for you.
I meant, delete the messages for you…
Thank you for wrting this and sharing your experience. It is well worth conversations. I have had reach outs in DM’s from people, and they seem to be increasing. Vigilance and support for each other is one of the ways to stop the encroachment of the scam and grift segment from infilitrating Substck.
That’s good! Hopefully that means their crew (or software? Not really sure how that works) is doing a good job weeding out fake accounts.
You’re welcome and I agree. I’ve had so many positive experiences through this platform and met the most amazing and good hearted people. These connections are vital, especially with so much anger and chaos in the world right now. It’s sad to question whether or not to trust direct messages because I genuinely enjoy connecting with this community.🩷
I agree with you completely. Being on substack is a tremendously gratifying and positive experience for me, and this will not taint that for me. I do notice how often these fake profiles vanish from the platform.
The whole world is!
Yeah. I mentioned to someone else that my words with friends gets bombarded with these people too. It’s crazy.
Your content is always so well-explained and easy to follow! Another fantastic read. Feel free to check out my latest article and share your thoughts.
Thank you so much for your kind words. I will definitely check out your work!☺️
Two woman have tried to scam me, one after posting about Gaza so I can’t help but think it was Israeli being that I have read they work that way against their political opponents. I hate to say this being close friends are Jewish.
And another scammer pretended to be a Ukrainian woman soldier. I finally typed her name in a search engine and found out the name and photo was of a well known scammer.
There are so many scammers working in the USA. I can’t help but think that we live in the USA of scam. Particularly when the biggest scammer is in the White House.
And to add the scammer that said she was from Ukarain tried to get me to contact her on telegram. After reading what telegram was that really sent up red flags.
I definitely agree. Things are amping up and changing so quickly since he took office. It really scares me.
I had similar on this platform. He told me he was intrigued by my writing. I explained that I had only made comments and had not written any full length pieces. I then got a very lovely, well written and convincing response that he was interested nonetheless and would I tell him about what the influences in my childhood were. I thought the whole thing odd so replied that I was busy and would get back to him. I then became very suspicious that he was a scammer and his response was likely AI generated.
Right… if you had yet to write anything yet, what else would he be wanting from you? Sigh
Exactly.
This happened to me on Facebook. I commented to governor andy beshear. An innocuous reply. But I got an answer. “PM me.” I did and had a couple of responses. I expressed political support and talked about Helene recovery in western NC. Then came “Do you have TG?” “What’s that?” “Telegram.” That was my red flag. I kept stalling long enough to copy the responses and report to the Governor’s office. I stopped responding before giving access on Telegram, an encrypted site created by Russia. We need to be ever vigilant. BTW the original PM disappeared from the fb page.
I’d never heard of telegram… thank you for explaining that!
Not questioning why he wanted to switch apps was a big part of the reason why I was upset with myself because I feel like that's something I would normally question. I think the only reason I didn’t is because he presented himself as well-spoken and it never donned on me that he could be using AI, not at that point, anyway.
Oh wow! That definitely seems off that they would want you to use a Russian app.
No, Telegram is a good app that a lot of good people use. The red flag, in my opinion, is that he wanted to switch to another app so fast and for no good reason.
OMG, I was actually thinking of posting about this very thing when I saw your excellent article here. I’m relatively new to Substack and am embarrassed to say I fell pretty quickly for the first guy who wanted to “Chat” and then started asking personal questions - What kind of job did I have? What were my favourite hobbies? The first thing I did was tell him that I was happily married for over 30 - THIRTY years! Obviously no spring chicken!!! I told him I have been diagnosed with ovarian cancer…. Still he kept on, calling me dear, wanting me to give him my phone number, join What’s App etc. etc. He kept messaging me, wanting to chat more, but I have a life and was getting pretty frustrated. Then he asked me what I was doing, what had I done during the day etc. I had it. I said I had to go and make dinner. He said - “Message me as soon as you’re done”. Holy Cow. So he was blocked and since then I’ve had at least four or five similar situations - one just earlier tonight. Lolol, he says he is Jason Statham!!! That made me roar out loud! They usually use the word “Dear” ….. as in “How are you doing, dear?” and usually say you’re beautiful etc. etc. blah blah blah. Anyways, all of these are blocked straight away now! What a waste of time and energy!
Welp, I just got spammed again. This person used a TV character’s name from a TV show I hadn’t heard of and said they were from the city the show was set in.
The weird thing about the TS account is it came up in the Substack suggestions. I’m guessing that doesn’t mean those accounts are approved by Substack. I subscribed but when I realized she only had a handful of subscribers, I just thought—there’s no way.
I doubt they’ll reach out because I sent the following direct message:
I’m assuming this account isn’t legitimate, due to the number of posts and the number of subscribers.
Ai is getting scary—as it can be so easily corrupted by its users. It used to be that scams were often easy to sus out, often due to poor grammar and spelling. Alas, this is no longer the case. Just a few weeks ago, I truly thought I was speaking to author, John Green. My heart soared at the thought that he had taken an interest in my writing and wanted to work with me. This is a problem on multiple levels. It hurts the people who start to believe that they are finally getting their big break. It also hurts the person they’re portraying—it’s identity theft. It’s breaking down trust on both sides and make no mistake, it’s fraud.
Perhaps people think that someone’s fame (coupled with easier access to them and their intellectual properties via the internet) is an invitation for exploitation. Some seem to view celebrities as entities, rather than human beings. Taylor has been exposed and exploited (probably) more than anyone else in the industry. She puts up a strong front and a brave face but has also shared that the negative attention related to her fame has caused significant trauma in her life. She doesn’t deserve it. John Green doesn’t deserve it—nobody does.
I don’t fully understand the endgame for these types of scams but I do know that there are easier ways to earn a living.
I prefer Substack to other forms of social media because of the purity of the platform as well as the honesty and compassion of the community here. I don’t want to see Substack become overrun with preying wolves prey.
Please stop.
Hopefully I’ve learned my lesson for the last time.
They also look like real posts now that I’m looking closer. The John Green account only had re-posts. I wish there was a way to know.
Keep Substack pure!
Is it wrong to tell them to go back to facebook?😆
I mean I really got hooked in. This person was fumbling around a chat thread on another Substack and I thought they were actually confused. So I tried to explain how the app works, blah blah blah, then they want to DM and I finally tried to google their name. It was a character off of a show called Leverage and the setting for the later seasons was in Portland. Where did this person tell me they were from? Portland. Ugh.
I think I just found another one… Taylor Swift. Looks more legitimate than the John Green one but on what planet would actual Taylor Swift have only 41 subscribers?!
My person said they had an architectural business. When I through out Frank Lloyd Wright and got an lol back, that really tipped me off.
the only green brother i like and trust less than john green is hank green.
this account may have been a scammer but hank green is a scammer in his own right.
This is truly horrific and I'm so sorry you had to go through this. Everywhere online is a scammer's paradise. I am suspicious of everyone, and take care around everyone. There's another person out there who I suspect is one. I daren't mention his name here but I am very suspicious of him. Will be watching and waiting. Keep safe. Jo xx
Everything is being flooded with con artists 🤯. I’m just ignoring, denying or blocking everything from in person to on line I don’t know. Trying to use google less and rely on my Apple apps and iPhone that at least appears to try and reduce my noise options
I imagine you’re inundated by unsolicited advice at this point, so forgive me if you’ve already started doing this. Two things:
Since subscribing means the other person now has my e-mail address, I’ve started being more careful about who I subscribe to. Before subscribing, I read their profile and also see if they have any posts. If they look like they might be a scammer, I don’t subscribe.
In my settings, I make it so only subscribers can send me messages. This has greatly reduced the number of clueless mid-aged men who appear to be looking for a girlfriend and have no interest in my writing or theirs. 😆
That's a good point.
I hope she is too. She has met some real “winners”. I frequently worry about her. But she's like my baby sister so I guess that's my job, lol. She was just a kid when Josh and I started dating.
And yeah… if they're using the pick-up style they do on here, no wonder they're not catching ant fish HAHA!
My sister-in-law uses them. I know everyone does but the idea of it makes me so nervous. Hopefully they background check.
P.S. Sorry for hijacking your post on a tangent. 😆
No worries! I’ve been known to go on some tangents ☺️
I wouldn’t use any app that required background checks — no way am I submitting my SSN to them. I’m sure (or I hope) your sister-in-law’s careful about her behavior.
I tend to feel like those ones are scammers. If they wanted a date, why not use a dating site instead. I get them when I play words with friends. The first time someone messaged me on there, I responded and quickly realized they were looking to pull a con.
You’re probably right. For some of them, though, their style must get them zero dates on dating apps, so they might be casting a wide net in order to find love. A lot of people seem to like the idea of using the world wide web as a matchmaker. That’s why when I use dating apps, I unmatch anyone who doesn’t want to meet in real life within the first month. 😆
I’m absolutely open to any advice! I didn't know about that setting but that would be a great help!
Also I was thinking that I need to go through everyone I subscribe to and start “weeding” them out.
And you're spot on about the messages from men. I always cringe at those… like there are dating apps for that, buddy! 🤦🏽♀️😆
Yeah, I don’t know if they’re looking for a girlfriend or if they’re scammers, but if it’s the former, they might want to improve their game. 🤣