Unsolicited LLM emails

[AgentDoiron]

Recently, I've started receiving unsolicited emails that claim to be from fellow authors who are interested in talking about writing. To my shame, I actually fell for it the first time. The emails all follow the same pattern (here's my bibliography, I'm really interested in talking about writing, what is your journey?). After reading a couple of them, the bland and generic writing style becomes obvious. They are from an LLM, no human involved.

Is anyone else receiving these? What is the goal of these emails?

 

[KittyOfSteele]

I haven't received those, but I'm willing to bet they're a scam for sure. By your description it doesn't seem to follow a legitimate email structure, other than the LLM.

Be careful if you start getting files though, especially .doc, .docx, and .pdf. They could inject a malicious macro in them that, once you open it, it can take over your device at worst.

 

[yowser]

There have been sporadic bursts of ChatGPT-like posts to threads here before, AI enamored clowns trying to see what they can get away with. It's LLM playtime, Turing Test syncopation.

 

[Jorunn]

It is a simple matter to create a second or third email. I mostly trust Lit, but I still have a separate email. I suggest using a different email when venturing into the rest of the Internet, even if you want to preserve your name.

 

[onehitwanda]

Proton mail doesn't require you to doxx yourself to get an account. Unlike that plague rat from Google.

 

[Five_Inch_Heels]

How are they getting your email?

If these messages are coming though your contact page here, Admin may want to know.

 

[THBGato]

No, but I've had a comment like that on Wattpad (which I've ignored).

 

[AgentDoiron]

How are they getting your email?

If these messages are coming though your contact page here, Admin may want to know.

The emails claim that "they found me on Facebook". Whether that's true or not is anyone's guess. I don't remember making my email public on Facebook, but I haven't been on that site for years.

 

[mrs_mackenzie]

Another writing site I sometimes use (won't name it here) is completely infected by fake accounts using AI to message you. They usually try to start a conversation and then ask for money in return for AI material. I haven't followed any of them up but it's obviously a scam. There are so many that it's practically impossible to do anything with other humans.

Hopefully Lit won't go the same way, with some moderation of comments on stories, at least.

 

[EMPTYSTAR]

How are they getting your email?

If these messages are coming though your contact page here, Admin may want to know.

What I did starting along time ago, was plus addressing, whenever I signed up for something that 100% needed a gmail/mail, basically did <123+sitename@gmail.com>, was very easy to track who was selling my email lol~

Note: Plus addressing still sends the mail to the same inbox

Almost every site that requires your email is selling your data unfortunately
So now I stick to Proton's email aliasing, but still use gmail for official stuff that I have to unfortunately, this is banking stuff usually ~

 

[StillStunned]

Over on Bluesky it tends to happen. You get a message from an account that appears to be from an established/famous author, and they ask about your books.

The thing is, though, that they never seem to read the replies. If I say, "I don't write books, I write short erotic sword & sorcery stories on Literotica" I'll get a reply saying, "Cool, let's exchange books!"

And then they'll say something like "I have 30 books published on Amazon", but you look up the author they're pretending to be and they have six published works or something.

(I've only had a few of these. Other people seem to be flooded. @Bazzle mentioned getting several.)

 

[KittyOfSteele]

The emails claim that "they found me on Facebook". Whether that's true or not is anyone's guess. I don't remember making my email public on Facebook, but I haven't been on that site for years.

https://haveibeenpwned.com/

Your email might have been leaked, and some bad actor decided to purchase your account among many to see if they catch someone. Try checking your email on Have I Been Pwned's database to see if it has been involved in some leak.

 

[MrPixel]

I appreciate the angst here.

Since I run my own e-mail service, I can create accounts and aliases to my heart's content. So I used to do the special address thing to track the bad boys whenever I signed-up for accounts [wherever]. It bore no fruit, everybody behaved themselves, so I stopped messin' with it. Most legit companies will honor "unsubscribe" requests. Also, many online retailers who spam after buying something will stop after a period of no follow-ups 'cause they know they piss people off when it gets to be "too much."

For anything LitE-related, I have a proton.me account (like @onehitwanda . You go, girl!). What I don't do is go near Google or anything Meta, like FaceBook, and set my browsers to block their trackers on the sites that have internal tagging for these creeps.

So my e-mail is surprisingly spam-free. I just smile and shake my head when smashing the <delete> key when the rare piece of shit makes it through the filters. Easy peasy.

 

[onehitwanda]

For anything LitE-related, I have a proton.me account (like @onehitwanda . You go, girl!). What I don't do is go near Google or anything Meta, like FaceBook, and set my browsers to block their trackers on the sites that have internal tagging for these creeps.

I really need to discover the motivation to set up a pi-hole.

 

[AgentDoiron]

Over on Bluesky it tends to happen. You get a message from an account that appears to be from an established/famous author, and they ask about your books.

The thing is, though, that they never seem to read the replies. If I say, "I don't write books, I write short erotic sword & sorcery stories on Literotica" I'll get a reply saying, "Cool, let's exchange books!"

And then they'll say something like "I have 30 books published on Amazon", but you look up the author they're pretending to be and they have six published works or something.

(I've only had a few of these. Other people seem to be flooded. @Bazzle mentioned getting several.)

This is precisely what I'm receiving. I still don't understand the motivation, but at least I'm not the only one.

 

[MrPixel]

I spoke too soon! My e-mail chime just announced a new arrival, and whaddayaknow, it was a spam with nothing more than a weird name and a PDF attachment that I am 100% certain had a payload. Delete et vous!

A few years ago I had an employee who was a little daft. She opened-up one of those "You have a delivery scheduled..." extortion spams and clicked on the link. It pretty much wiped-out her system, and was just starting to crawl through our main server before I ran to her desk and literally pulled the plug. Saved the server, had to call for outside help to rebuild what was left of her computer.

 

[onehitwanda]

had to call for outside help to rebuild what was left of her computer.

sorry, no - that's hammer, stake and pentagram territory.

 

[stickygirl]

I really need to discover the motivation to set up a pi-hole.

What sort of pies do you get with it? My fav is the chicken sort, with gravy and peas and chunky chips

 

[NotWise]

Over on Bluesky it tends to happen. You get a message from an account that appears to be from an established/famous author, and they ask about your books.

The thing is, though, that they never seem to read the replies. If I say, "I don't write books, I write short erotic sword & sorcery stories on Literotica" I'll get a reply saying, "Cool, let's exchange books!"

And then they'll say something like "I have 30 books published on Amazon", but you look up the author they're pretending to be and they have six published works or something.

(I've only had a few of these. Other people seem to be flooded. @Bazzle mentioned getting several.)

I have a few chat requests like that on Bluesky, but it's never leaked into my email. The system seems to remove bots it can identify.

 

[JayHawnee]

I haven't received those, but I'm willing to bet they're a scam for sure. By your description it doesn't seem to follow a legitimate email structure, other than the LLM.

Be careful if you start getting files though, especially .doc, .docx, and .pdf. They could inject a malicious macro in them that, once you open it, it can take over your device at worst.

Just want to add, that also .docm files can be very problematic in this regard! .docm is a special MS-File-Format for Word-Files with Macros.

 

[onehitwanda]

What sort of pies do you get with it? My fav in the chicken sort, with gravy and peas and chunky chips

about ten kilometers southeast of the town I grew up in was a farm stall that was our local Mecca. From as early as I can remember, if we were driving down to the sea we'd pass it, and we'd stop for lamb and mint pies.

I have no idea what else was in them, but they were the best pies I've ever tasted anywhere. Maybe that's nostalgia, but nowhere else in the world have I found anything that tasted as good as those messy little home-made pies in their grease paper.

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Just want to add, that also .docm files can be very problematic in this regard! .docm is a special MS-File-Format for Word-Files with Macros.

Having Macros enabled whenever you open a document is the worst thing that Word has by default. Thankfully LibreOffice always warns about macros before opening the file.

 

[Britva415]

sorry, no - that's hammer, stake and pentagram territory.

I mean, I'm sure the bare metal was fine

 

[Britva415]

Based on the title, I thought this was going to be along the lines of

"We've been trying to reach you regarding the extended warranty for your LLM."

 

[KittyOfSteele]

Based on the title, I thought this was going to be along the lines of

"We've been trying to reach you regarding the extended warranty for your LLM."

Oh God... Now that I read it again...

Someone, somewhere in the world, is now using AI to generate dick pics to send them through email... adding also a text that's also been generated by an LLM.