Forum: Author Hangout

Spam or scam?

Mushroom 🚫

I got the following message in here today, and am still trying to make sense of it.

Mushroom a writers excellence is measured in the flock of people trooping to his page to enjoy his literary work.
You have been recognized by the L. P. E convention of Literotica fantasy as a writer of both creative and imaginative mind therefore your account has gotten the recognition it needs to enable you start earning more from your literary works.
Reply for step by step instructions on how to get your account verified to enable your payment.

P. S message should be directly from the writer not the Editor.

Now a search of the one that sent this to me comes up with nothing, and I have never seen them post in the forums either.

It strikes me as either spam (trying to get me to join another site), or a scam (bringing up payment makes me suspect they want banking information).

So this has two reasons. First of all, is this legitimate? And secondly, if it is not to warn others what might be going on.

Replies: Keet The Outsider Switch Blayde Dicrostonyx Bondi Beach

Keet 🚫

@Mushroom

This not just smells like a scam but it stinks all over the place. I would discard it without a second thought.
I think you are right that they want to get banking information, maybe even get you to enlist others.

The Outsider 🚫

@Mushroom

I'm looking for a new part-time job, but I refuse to pay these sites that want money to do what we used to do by calling some place or reading a newspaper.

And Spam is a quality meat product of the Hormel Corporation...

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@The Outsider

And Spam is a quality meat product of the Hormel Corporation...

Now you are just being sarcastic. Spam and quality don't belong in the same paragraph.

Replies: awnlee jawking The Outsider

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Dominions Son

Spam and quality don't belong in the same paragraph.

Unless they're used as a pair to describe the relative quality of spiced ham versus a McDonald's 'burger'.

AJ

Replies: Dominions Son

Dominions Son 🚫

@awnlee jawking

Unless they're used as a pair to describe the relative quality of spiced ham versus a McDonald's 'burger'.

Yes, choose the lowest possible bar to compare against. The quality of both is 0.0

Replies: awnlee jawking

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Dominions Son

Come the zombie apocalypse, I think we both know which of the two you'll be loading into your truck :-)

AJ

Replies: Dominions Son Radagast

Dominions Son 🚫

@awnlee jawking

Come the zombie apocalypse, I think we both know which of the two you'll be loading into your truck :-)

Neither. I'll eat the zombies first.

Replies: akarge awnlee jawking

akarge 🚫

@Dominions Son

Eww!

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Dominions Son

Neither. I'll eat the zombies first.

If MacDonald's survives, I'm sure they'll do a zombie-burger with cheese just for you. :-(

AJ

Radagast 🚫

@awnlee jawking

The burgers. They don't rot when left exposed to the air.

Replies: richardshagrin

richardshagrin 🚫

@Radagast

car rots. And why would you want a pot a toes?

The Outsider 🚫

@Dominions Son

Well, I've got nothing better to do during the day. Plus, after 32 years in EMS, you pick up a little sarcasm...

Switch Blayde 🚫

@Mushroom

Reply for step by step instructions on how to get your account verified to enable your payment.

That's the killer sentence. Ignore them. Don't answer.

Replies: Mushroom

Mushroom 🚫
Updated:

@Switch Blayde

That's the killer sentence. Ignore them. Don't answer.

I feel the same way. And am ignoring it completely, although I have contacted the webmaster to see if they want me to try and string them along to get more information.

But if they hit me up, they may well try to hit others up. This was sent via the email in here, not through my regular email. But I strongly suspect this is a fishing attempt and they may hit up other authors.

They probably have no idea my background, and I was already seeing things like this when 9600 modems were the norm. But there was an outside chance this is something that Lazeez or others in here knew about and was legitimate, which is why I am asking as well as warning.

Especially as I have never "sold" any of my works anywhere, ever. I actually find it a bit funny that somebody wants to try and tap into an income that I do not have.

I also find it humorous that they have added in "Literotica", the name of another site that I belonged to decades ago, and have not been active in for likely 15 years or more.

Replies: Rodeodoc awnlee jawking

Rodeodoc 🚫

@Mushroom

You kids and your super fast 9600 modems. I was just recalling when a business partner forced us to move up from 300 to 1200. Them were the days.

Replies: Michael Loucks Mushroom

Michael Loucks 🚫

@Rodeodoc

I was just recalling when a business partner forced us to move up from 300 to 1200. Them were the days.

110 baud acoustic coupler was my first modem. That's 110 bits per second, kids.

Mushroom 🚫

@Rodeodoc

You kids and your super fast 9600 modems. I was just recalling when a business partner forced us to move up from 300 to 1200. Them were the days.

Oh, I also date back to 300 bbs acoustical modems. But very few outside of professionals or the serious hobbyists like me were using them. The early 1990s (when the 9600 was becoming standard) was when more started to get them for things like AOL.

Replies: madnige

madnige 🚫

@Mushroom

ASR33 on a 110 baud acoustic coupler for me. Since there was always local copy, passwords were obscured by the password prompt pre-typing a whole bunch of characters to make a nearly solid black blob for you to type it onto.

awnlee jawking 🚫

@Mushroom

I also find it humorous that they have added in "Literotica", the name of another site that I belonged to decades ago

'Literotica' also appears to be a subsection of the Inkitt site. I guess the Literotica website didn't try to establish IPR over the name.

AJ

Dicrostonyx 🚫

@Mushroom

Bring it to Lazeez's attention.

I agree that it's a scam, not least because a writing site would likely have better punctuation, but even if it weren't it would still be a problem.

We don't even typically mention Literotica or other rival sites on the SOL forum. In the unlikely event that this was legit, it would be in seriously bad taste.

Bondi Beach 🚫

@Mushroom

Mushroom a writers excellence is measured in the flock of people trooping to his page to enjoy his literary work.

With two errors in the very first sentence you already know it's a scam.
~ JBB

Replies: Rodeodoc

Rodeodoc 🚫

@Bondi Beach

And are they assuming their gender? Horrors!

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Forum: Author Hangout

Spam or scam?

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