Email Impersonators

I wrote some time ago about receiving an email from someone claiming to be from Parkes & McDonalds, a very real and legitimate business, that turned out to be fake. The sender had claimed to be someone from P&M, not just anyone but one of the founding partners at that. After some sleuthing, I was able to track down honest contact information for the group and reach out regarding the email. They confirmed that the email was a hoax and not a true offer, which I had already expected.

At that time, that was the first and only email I had gotten like that. Most questionable offers came in the way of a voicemail with a bad connection and thick accents. But recently I have noticed an uptick in these types of messages. Some offer a name that isn’t listed on the real group’s website (red flag #1) while others list prominent figures at those groups (red flag #2).

So, why are both options a red flag? Well, both for similar reasons. These types of groups that these emails come from are groups that don’t usually do direct solicitation. In other words, these are groups your agent seeks out and tries to convince to look at your work, not the other way around where they come knocking on your door begging you to do business with them.

But not only for that reason.

Red flag #1 for an unverified contact is because it’s an unverified contact. if you ask them for proof that they work there, you’ll likely get back information publicly available on their website and an excuse about them being new so their official email account hasn’t been set up. Laughable to some but some people will believe it. If you’re not willing to dig deep to verify information then you become susceptible to their deceit. Never call the phone numbers in a questionable email and never email the addresses in a questionable email. Always do your homework to find if there is a legit group with that information and reach out directly to them. Often times you will find out that nobody with the name in the email for Red flag #1 works there.

Red flag #2 is a little different because the contact name is someone that can be found on the company’s website as a legitimate representative, usually with a higher level position or senior type title. So while Red flag #1 was flagged because you couldn’t determine if that person worked there, Red flag #2 stands out because this is publicly listed information that anyone could scrap and use for their own nefarious purposes. Add to that the fact that these scammers tend to impersonate senior level staff, it’s all the more unlikely that the stated individual would be reaching out directly to a small Indie author. Your senior level people are going to be reserved for celebrities, established authors, award winners, viral successes, etc. The types of accounts that demand senior attention due to competition from other agencies, not someone who has a few books on Amazon with a few purchases and reviews.

But the biggest red flag is not who they say they are or what company they say the represent. The biggest red flag of all is that almost all of these impersonation type emails come from an @gmail.com address (Red flag #3).

Everything about the email in the subject line, message, and signature might look perfectly legit. Well written. A small profile pic in the signature. A company logo maybe too. All the standard fluff one might expect from a curated and well defined professional communication. BUT…when you look at the sender’s address it reveals the senders address is <name>.<company>@gmail.com then you know you have a problem. This is the end all detail that tells you this is not a real message and that you should not respond to, click, or call anything mentioned in the email.

Even if the person in the message were new, they company would not issue them a generic @gmail.com address. @gmail.com is typically used for personal accounts because they’re free. If a company uses Google for their mail services, they typically get a custom domain name to use so the sender’s address would still end in @mypublishinghouse.com and not @gmail.com. And even if the company had issued the new person an address ending in @gmail.com they would most assuredly NOT have that person directly reaching out to authors using that address.

And for Red flag #2 (senior level people/established reps), these would be even less likely to have been given an @gmail.com address. The company will have issued these people very real and very official email addresses that best reflect on the company. No major player publishing house or film studio will conduct business using addresses that end in @gmail.com, @yahoo.com, @hotmail.com, @geocities.com, or any of the other free mail account services out there, especially not for their senior reps and executives.

Often the clues and answers to dispel the lies are included in the very messages they send to deceive you, all you have to do is know where to look. Stay vigilant. Stay safe.