This is gonna be a quick update — a bit of a follow-up on something I recently posted about the slew of emails I’ve gotten recently.

They always start off with praise or some kind of mundane request (like for a discussion guide for one of your books) and then turn into an appeal for money.

Now, things are escalating, and I’ve started getting emails from — wait for it — New York Times Bestselling Authors who like my work. Bravo for me!

This is especially annoying because I’ve previously been contacted out of the blue by legitimate entities or creators (like Scott Adams!) who wanted to talk about something on my blog or discuss a collaboration. With that burned into my brain, I don’t immediately find it absurd when someone successful wants to have a chat. I have to vet these damned emails, lest I lose sleep wondering if I missed out on a real connection.

Anyway, the most recent email was from “Katee Robert” and the clear giveaway on the fraud element was how the sender included a lot of questions about my writing right off the bat. As an author myself, I really don’t think my first email to another author would be “where do you get your ideas?” or some other version of a ‘safe’ interview question.

I still tried to vet the email, just to be sure…because maybe someone else would ask a question like that. Zero evidence of legitimacy.

I might as well put this notice out there: If I contact you for whatever reason, it will be from my roe@jpaulroe.com email address. None other. Just keep that in mind in case someone ever decides to use my name and you’re Googling to find out of it’s real.

Be vigilant. It sucks that people are out there preying on our good intentions and desire to succeed as authors, but it sucks even more if they steal your money, KDP account, or whatever.