Taking a Closer Look at Scammers

by Sharon Kayne

As an indie author, I am the target of many scammers. Many, many more scammers than I previously dreamed possible. I recently got a workout from two of them who were particularly good at what they do. Of course, AI helps with that. AI can make it sound like this person just totally gets your book, when, in fact, this person is emailing you from half way around the world and using Google Translate. While I’m pleased to report that neither scammer got any money from me—because, of course, I was aware the entire time that they probably were scammers—the whole thing still cost me time and, more pathetically, pride (which was already in short supply). 

The whole reason scammers prey on indie authors is that they know we are desperate. We’re not only in a tough market, but what we’re putting out there—what’s on the line for us—is so personal. Our books are our babies. That makes us really susceptible to stuff that we’d normally see right through. It pains me to think I was feeling that desperate.

But I was. Granted, I kept a healthy amount of skepticism alive along the way. But even healthy skepticism can’t stand up against the whole, “but what if it’s real?” issue. I had that. As I dealt with these people, most of my brain was saying, “It’s a scam!” There was just this tiny piece of my mind saying, “But what if it’s real?” And that leads to the whole, “You have more to lose if it’s real and you ignore it than you do if you check it out and it just turns out to be a scam.”

It’s kind of the reverse to how I felt about becoming agnostic. Most of you is saying “I don’t buy your paradigm.” Then there’s a tiny part of you saying, “But what if it’s real?” But I digress.

Beyond my battered pride, the subject of scammers always makes me wonder what kind of person could do this. What sort of person lies to and steals from people and thinks that’s a perfectly fine way to make a living? Do these people lack empathy for all people or just the ones they use? And, since they lack empathy, are they able to form any positive human attachments? Or are they sitting all alone with their computers just waiting to graduate up to serial killing?

And that whole line of thinking isn’t terribly good for my mental health.

I just don’t understand being able to shut off empathy. I feel bad if I hurt someone and it was totally accidental. I couldn’t hurt someone else on purpose—especially if they were a stranger and hadn’t done anything to me. I don’t respect the kinds of people who hurt other people on purpose, so I’d be utterly unable to respect myself. So if these scammers lack empathy, they must also have very low standards for themselves.

The other possibility, I suppose, is that these scammers do it out of sheer desperation. That, in some jungle somewhere—due to drug lords or government grift or whatever—this is the only way they’ve found to earn enough money to feed their children. And that, even though they can’t express it, they are deeply grateful for every dollar you send their way as it keeps their children from starving.

Well, shit. Now I don’t know how to feel about the scammers. Either they are the scum of the earth, or they are the most vulnerable among us. They either deserve our scorn or our pity.

After thinking this through, I decided I needed to use the same “but, what if?” approach to this scammer problem. So, here’s where I fall: I guess it’s possible that not all scammers are horrible people. What if some of them are just desperate? Even so, I’m going to continue to do my best to keep myself from being ripped off by one. Knowing my luck, I’d be ripped off by one of the non-desperate ones.

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Buy my historical romances, This Restless Sea, The Green Silk Gown, and Variations on a Romance, at Amazon.