Another warning: shady scam

teacherjess

My MIL told me about this over our vacation this past weekend. It's a shady, sneaky scam and I can see why she was "had" so I thought I'd share it.

She is a professor and specializes in Irish lit and drama. She received an email from a reporter from a major London newspaper saying he was writing an article on the critiquing of Irish drama and he wanted to know if she'd share her opinions. She checked on his name, etc. and he was listed as a reporter for the paper on their website. She's done similar things before and sometimes she's been paid, sometimes not. So she went back and forth with him for about a month, just answering extensive questions, but the questions starting getting strange. He started to ask her for summaries of major Irish plays, and backgrounds of the authors...basically stuff anyone could find.

She got suspicious and called the paper and they said they had a reporter by that name, but he was not writing that article and he said he had no idea who she was. She told a friend about it and the friend knew another professor who had dealt with the same thing. He Googled some of what MIL had responded with...and it turned out that this "reporter" guy was piecing together a "study guide" online about Irish drama and trying to sell it to college students on the internet. He had used everything MIL had told him, word for word, and hadn't given her credit.

You have to admit, it's pretty crafty...but obviously shady. If you have anyone who is in teaching or is known for being an expert in a field, tell them to keep their eyes out. This guy looked legit and even had an email address that looked like it had come from the newspaper...it was only off by a letter.

Moesten

Gotta admire the guy's craftiness even while questioning his morals.

Superchicy

Wow, that is shady!  I get e-mails all the time from publishers about different things and usually don't do much research on who it is.  This  definitely makes me think about checking up on who is contacting me. 

cops_wife

As someone who writes for a newspaper and often contacts sources via e-mail, I'd like to kick this guy in the shins. FWIW though, journalists generally conduct actual interviews via phone or in person unless there's a major time constraint or some other reason that's not possible. I often contact a source via e-mail and set up a time to talk over the phone, so that may be a good way to screen out this sort of thing.