Spam, Scams and online Cons

Spam really does get everywhere. As a publisher, we receive many unsolicited submissions from authors. One of the most persistent is a guy claiming that he invented Post-It notes and that his book follows the story of how 3M ripped off his life's work. Right. Unfortunately, the story of Post-It notes is well documented.

Here's another example that arrived today:

To Whom It May Concern:

Hi, my name is Jack Steele, my story is that I was recruited by the Justice Department for over two years to infiltrate a group in order to capture one of Americas 10 most wanted killers. An article was written in the New York magazine by Robert Kolker titled Mercenary For Justice documenting my journey leading to his arrest.  If you are interested in my story, please email at dendav17@aol.com, or by telephone number 561-594-2281.

Thank you in advance.

Jack Steele

Sounds great! Exciting!

Where's the outline? Where's the connection between the author's name and the email address?

The article referred to is genuine; http://nymag.com/news/features/51835/

But is the person in the article in Palm Beach, Florida, where the phone number appears to point to?

So why the suspicion?

If you were an author, wouldn't you put a link to the article? Would you include at least some outline of the book or a sample chapter?

Spam, scams and con tricks are everywhere, unfortunately.