We let them in: Malware scams

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How many times have you received a phone call from some random number that is actually a computerized voice on the other end of the line? "Hello. This is Visa." That's normally when I just hang up.

I get them often enough that now I tend not to even answer the landline during my workday. I just let it go through to the answering machine… and the scammer always hangs up before it gets to the recording part of the message.

But on the odd occasion when I have picked up the phone, there have been times when I have gotten a real person on the other end of the line. Normally, they start by saying that they're from Microsoft and that they've detected a problem with my computer.

And this is when I tend to have a little fun.

"Well, that's interesting. Why would Microsoft be calling me when I have a Mac?" I don't have a Mac, but the person on the other end of the line doesn't know that.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I'm from Mac." And yes, I really did have some scammer try to tell me this at one point. It was beyond laughable.

"Oh… Then you might be able to help me with my Linux machine." And I was having so much fun sending that scammer around in circles.

But in the end, I got bored. "Look, dude, I know you're some asshole trying to get into my system. You can try all you'd like. It's not going to happen." Then I hung up.

The persistent bugger kept trying to call back. I'd pick up the phone and instantly hang up. But after the sixth call within a span of 15 minutes (not an exaggeration… I was counting, because I was getting ready to put in a formal complaint with my phone company and have the number blocked), I decided to let it go through to the answering machine. While my voice was giving the instructions about leaving a message, the prick on the other end of the line was shouting in his thick foreign accent: "Ma'am, you need to listen to me. There really is something wrong with your computer." And he hung up as soon as the beep indicated that the answering machine was recording the message.

The gull of some people. Yet, there are enough people who fall for the scam to make it worth their while.

Today, I want to talk about the malware scams, because all of these phone calls are about trying to deposit some malware onto your machine, so they can do damage later.

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We let them in: “Help me, Mom” scams

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Wherever there are people who are trusting and wanting to believe the best in people, there will be people who take advantage of that trust, scamming people out of their good money.

The con artist can be seen throughout history, starting with the medicine man, who would peddle some miracle cure—which was normally filled with alcohol or some other thing that had no medicinal value at all. And there were the street games, where you attempt to find the pea under the nut. And let's not forget the scam artist that would convince you to invest your money in some great invention—and never come through.

With the internet era, a new breed of scam artist has risen, and the number of scams is on the rise. And the most prevalent scam at the moment preys on parents and their desire to help their children.

In today's post, I want to talk about the "Help me, mom" txting scam that has conned thousands of people out of their money, all because they believed that the txt messages were coming from their teenage and young adult children.

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Woman watching the sunset

I have to do it MY way

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At the end of March 2023, I attended the NZSA Roadshow in Christchurch, New Zealand, which was a series of workshops and panels for writers (not readers). It had been some time since I had gone to one of those events, and I knew that part of my 2023 reconnection was to also reconnect with the writing community.

So, I went with an open mind, not quite sure what I would take away from the day. And it was within the first session of the day that I was blown away and brought to tears (in a good way).

The day started with an interview discussion with Witi Ihimaera. I know the name won't mean much to my readers (the name didn't mean much to me either), but as I listened to this 80yo writer, listening to his philosophies towards creating a writing life that you can feel proud of, there was one theme that ran through everything that he was talking about. He did it in a way that was true to who he is as a person… and he's still learning and growing and still trying to stay true to who he is as a person.

He's doing it his way.

As that session ended, I just looked up at the ceiling. "Okay… okay… I get the message."

And even as I write this, the tears are flowing because the message is so loud and clear. In moving forward within my writing career (and within my life), I have to do things my way.

Let me set the stage for the significance and importance of such a profound message.

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We let them in: The online friendship scams

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I've had a LinkedIn account for a good number of years now. I signed up when LinkedIn first started, wanting to connect with my fellow researchers. LinkedIn is a professional networking site, and it was a perfect place to build those connections, particularly with those who are overseas. But when I started my editorial business, I chose to shift the focus of my LinkedIn account towards my editorial ventures.

So, I went into LinkedIn, updated my profiles and decided to connect my LinkedIn profile to my business email.

A few days later, I got an email from someone who was commenting on how pretty I was. Those sorts of pickup lines are never going to work on me anyway, but I emailed back, asking if he had any editorial business that he was interested in contracting. The sleazy pickup emails continued, and eventually I had to block the dude's email.

But when this happened, the only question that went through my mind was "How did this guy get my email address in the first place?" The email that he was sending his sleazy pickup lines to wasn't listed on my website. I hadn't shared it with anyone because it was a brand-new email. The only place that had that email in a public setting of any description was LinkedIn.

And that's when I discovered that LinkedIn has a little flaw.

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ChatGPT might be here to stay, but so am I

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The publishing industry has been in a big, confused mess about the emergence of ChatGPT, a freely accessible artificial intelligence (AI) program designed to write creative works based on a series of prompts. [1] While the technology could significantly improve things for some people, writers everywhere are uncertain about the full impacts that the technology will have on the publishing industry.

The ChatGPT program can write any story of any length in almost any style. And therein lies the problem.

At the moment, it is reasonably easy to tell when a piece of writing has been generated by ChatGPT, but as the algorithm learns—and I really mean "learns"—it will get harder and harder to tell. The market was already overwhelmed by the scam writers out to make a quick buck, but when ChatGPT came online, the saturation became worse.

Literary magazines like Clarkesworld became inundated with AI-generated stories, and they closed their submissions portal as a result, while they figure out how to handle this miss. [2] Amazon has seen a sudden increase in self-published books on the platform. [3] And there is now great concern about the future of professional ghostwriters, knowing that businesses no longer need to hire a ghostwriter when they can get an AI program to write their material for free.

Exactly where this is all going and how the industry will ultimately respond to AI-generated stories is still unknown.

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