Following in the footsteps of my recent blog post about scammers, a new attempt came my way today. This time, instead of someone offering to launch my writing into a glittering stratosphere of fame and fortune, it's my YouTube channel which has attracted the attentions of a cyber-grifter.
Their email reads:
"Hi Art & Fiction by Adele Cosgrove-Bray, I just checked out your YouTube video about Urban Gardening in April, and Ooops I Wrecked The Shed! and thought I had to reach out.
"I’m actually sending this on behalf of fellow creator XXXX, we have a few million followers on multiple platforms and our founder Haris now helps other creators along with our team.
"We're very confident we could help make you additional revenue consistently by launching or scaling your online community or coaching program AND increasing your audience by 15 - 35k new people. (I know it’s a bold claim but we have a ton of results - we’ve got millions of followers and made over 7 figures with our personal brand ourselves).
"Our other co-owner personally made you a short video for you to say hello and show you how it works (and asked me to send this message to you!)
And here, inserted into the email, was the mentioned video - and no, I did not click on the icon to play it. I can do without a computer virus, thanks.
"We’ve helped a multitude other creators just like yourself and have multiple case studies. We’re sending this message because we believe we can get similar results for you too and that you have so much value to provide to your audience.
"We also do all of this on a complete results based model, which means if you don’t profit we don’t profit and you cannot lose, that’s how much we believe in what we do :)
"I’d love to learn more about your goals with your personal brand moving forward…
"Are you opposed to having a quick chat in the coming days so we can talk through this?
"Thanks,"
What, no signature, even?
It might have occurred to the sender that my name is not Art & Fiction by... That's the name of my channel, used to clearly identify the channel's main content. Surely a human, rather than a computer bot, would have figured out that much.
If this person/bot really had a valid YouTube presence, then where is their channel URL? That was conspicuous by its absence, as were any links to their other alleged platforms.
A quick websearch showed me that XXXX is associated with football. Ask my husband, and he'll happily tell you how I zone out the second he starts telling me anything to do with football. My videos have nothing to do with any sports. The clue's in the "Art & Fiction" bit of the channel's title. My guess is that this sports company have no idea their name is being used by scammers. (I've typed XXXX rather than name them.)
Anyway, I will not be replying to this email, obviously another attempt to get me to part with cash in return for flattery and snake oil.
Time for a coffee, I think.
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