I held off on my weekly Substack post this week, because I was waiting on some exciting news to be officially announced. Unfortunately that announcement has been delayed (only slightly! hopefully I’ll be able to share next week 🤞).
So here I am in your inbox now with far LESS exciting news: there is a scammer who has been impersonating me via email. I made a post about this on my Instagram earlier this month, but as the scammy messages seem to be ramping up, I wanted to provide a more thorough (and easily Google-able) warning here.
I’ve heard from multiple people in the past 24 hours alone saying they got similar emails from the account info.authorlaynefargo@gmail.com. One person even had a whole conversation with this fake me, which is disturbing to say the least!
These emails seem to be targeting other authors, complimenting their work in (I assume) an attempt to sell them publishing consultations or other fraudulent services. They’re pretty convincing, including a signature with my official headshot, the titles of my books, and a link to my official website:
So just to be clear:
That is not my email address.
I don’t have a fancy email signature like that (and if I did, it wouldn’t include that random / after the URL, cause it makes my eye twitch)
The only online accounts I currently use are this Substack and my Instagram.
I do not offer services like consultation or editing or mentoring or whatever the fuck these scammers are pretending to sell.
I am not in the habit of cold-emailing people I’ve never met to compliment their work — and certainly not random men, like are you kidding?? The very last way I would ever choose to spend my time.
Anyway if you get one of these messages, please report it as spam and block the address. And be vigilant in general, cause these AI scams have been everywhere lately, in the publishing world especially. I know of several other authors who’ve been impersonated this way, and I myself get fake emails each and every week offering me book club placements or television interviews or other “opportunities” for just a small administrative fee or whatever the latest scammer bullshit is.
Now back to writing The Ice Queens word by painstaking word because I am a creative human being not a loser hiding behind a bot ✌️ Hope to slide back into your inbox very soon with glad tidings instead of annoying shit like this!