澳大利亚作家玛丽·科卢西在其处女作《Touch Grass》于2024年6月发表后不到两周，就收到了一封冒充英国Granta出版社负责人的诈骗邮件[1]。该邮件使用@aol.com地址而非Granta官方邮箱，试图诱骗作者进行付款[1]。Granta出版社官网已发布警告，提示存在冒充员工发送欺诈邮件的行为[1]。
利用AI技术进行此类欺诈的现象已成为业界普遍问题。澳大利亚作家协会首席执行官露西·海沃德指出，这类诈骗"远更精细"，诈骗者能提供详细信息制造出已阅读作品的假象[1]。美国作家维多利亚·施特劳斯追溯了她收到的数百份AI诈骗邮件，发现主要来自尼日利亚[1]。受害者多为非专业作者和首次出版作者，其中包括写回忆录或关于个人经历的作者[1]。
美国政府确定一个菲律宾诈骗集团在六年内诈骗了近800名美国作者超过4800万美元[1]。
Australian author Mary Colucci received what appeared to be an extraordinary opportunity just two weeks after her debut novel Touch Grass was published in June 2024: an email from an editor at Granta, the prestigious British publishing house.[1] The message was remarkably detailed and convincing, crafted to suggest the sender had actually read her work.[1] However, the email address bore the telltale sign of a scam—it used @aol.com rather than Granta's official domain.[1] Colucci had fallen victim to an increasingly sophisticated wave of AI-generated fraud targeting writers worldwide.
This type of deception has become endemic in the publishing industry.[1] Scammers, predominantly based in Nigeria according to tracing by American author Victoria Strauss, who has received hundreds of such fraudulent emails, now routinely impersonate literary agents, editors, and publishing executives to lure authors into making payments.[1] The Australian Society of Authors confirmed the epidemic scale of the problem, with CEO Lucy Hayward noting that these scams are "far more sophisticated" than typical fraud, deploying detailed information to create the illusion that the perpetrators have genuinely engaged with the author's work.[1] Granta itself has posted a warning on its website alerting authors to the presence of fraudsters impersonating its staff.[1]
The financial toll has been staggering.[1] A Philippine scam ring was identified by U.S. authorities as having defrauded nearly 800 American authors of more than $48 million over six years.[1] Victims tend to be non-professional and first-time published authors, including those who have written memoirs or personal narratives.[1]