New (to Me) Scam on Goodreads

I love connecting with people on Goodreads, especially people who have read or want to read my books. That said, I am extremely careful when people randomly want to friend me and have brand-new accounts.  Yes, someone could have read my book, seen that I connect with people through Goodreads, and created an account for that purpose, but if that were the case, s/he would most likely pass the test I give all new friend requests. (Plus, anyone can follow me and see my reviews and new books. Friends can no longer message people privately through Goodreads, so it's odd someone would want to do that when my profile is public.)

First, I check out the person's account. Does s/he have book reviews? How many? Are any of them written and not just star ratings? Do the written reviews sound AI-generated?  Few reviews that are mostly star-only or AI-generated, and a high percentage of 5-star ratings send off warning bells.

Goodreads also allows you to see the activity of members--which is good. Someone who has be randomly friending indie authors (exclusively) and sending them similar-sounding messages is another warning flag. 

Enter "Rose" who recently wanted to connect with me. As usual, it was a brand new account only trying to friend indie authors. Where Rose stood out was that she began messaging the people she friended (publically, so she must not realize everyone can see these) and giving the her e-mail request while asking for a copy of the author's book. The messages were almost identical, but contained what sounded like an AI-generated specific question about a book the authors had written. 

I wondered what Rose's game was. Obviously, she gives you her e-mail address and wants you to reply to her. Giving a scammer access to your direct e-mail is bad on its own, but this seemed like a lot of work just for an e-mail address. So, I dug a little more.

It seems the biggest problem is that you are giving them a copy of your book without any restrictions. Regardless of the protections you have on it, once they get a full copy, they can hack those away and distribute or sell it illegally. They could even use AI to translate it into another language without your knowledge and make money of it themselves. Apparently, this has been a long-running scam on Goodreads. I'm not sure how they missed me until now.

Anyway, Kindle+ (formerly KU) is a relatively easy way to get your books to the masses. If someone insists on a copy of your book, tell them when your next free promotion is, and let them download it from Amazon. Needless to say, this person