Scam?

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Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 12:45 pm

(I changed all names, and stuff that wouldn't make sense with the actual names)

Quote:

Hello MYNAME,

My name is THEIRNAME and I’m the Associate Editor for Deitel at Pearson Education. I’m contacting you to see if you might be interested in conducting a post-publication review of the current edition of Green Eggs and Ham, 6e by Dr. Seuss.

The authors are planning to streamline the upcoming 7th Edition, so a thorough review of the current edition is needed. As you know the continued success of green eggs and hams are built on the quality of the book and education that goes along with them. The quality is dependent on reviews by pioneers on the forefront of the cuisine including instructors and industry professionals. Your feedback would be greatly appreciated.

The honorarium for this post-publication review is $600.

If you are unable to review, might you be able to suggest and alternate colleague?

I look forward to hearing from you.

Best Regards,

Carole

The weird thing is that I got that 10 days ago, and I got another review offer on Feb 12 (but just found out since I never check my email), but on my website, I haven't done any reviews, and $600 is a lot considering I've made about -$9.

I emailed them back, and they said they would send me info later today... Am I going to be baiting them, or making $600?

Posted: Fri Apr 10, 2009 8:19 pm

shakira wrote:

Am I going to be baiting them, or making $600?

Could be either. It's not a scam format that I recognise.
I think you need to play along, and get further info. Which means giving them your real address, which rules out a bait.

Baiting Guru Joined: 08 Jul 2004 Posts: 11857 Location: UK

Could it possibly be like those author scams, where you contact a publishing company to see if they will publish your book, they write back saying it sounds great, but they want you to get an appraisal of it done first, they give you the link to an appraisal company, which of course, is them under another name, they take your money and then tell you your writing/book is not good enough.

Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 3:54 am

Well, they sent me a .zip with 2 word documents and an annotated PDF. They also sent me a username and password to an FTP with a PDF for each chapter of the book.

I don't think scammers would be that smart, so do I trust them with my SSN and address (which they asked for in one of the word documents for a post review survey)?

Baiting Guru Joined: 03 May 2007 Posts: 18313

I'd never give my SSN to strangers or over the internet. What do they claim to need that information for?

Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:22 am

The grammar is really shoddy for an "Associate Editor". Can you check the IP?

Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:26 am

If you'd like to pm me any details (names, email addresses, headers etc) I'll see if I can uncover anything.

Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 4:32 pm

Ima Baeder wrote:

I'd never give my SSN to strangers or over the internet. What do they claim to need that information for?

"Social Security # (for payment purposes)"

Quote:

The grammar is really shoddy for an "Associate Editor". Can you check the IP?

The IP is from Simon & Schuster, which is a publisher, and the city is the same one she said she's in.

Quote:

If you'd like to pm me any details (names, email addresses, headers etc) I'll see if I can uncover anything.

Sent.

Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 7:20 pm

Thanks for the pm. The headers look genuine but I've advised to check with the contact details on the website pearson.com (reg 1996)
Sadly, grammar and spelling are inconclusive as I used to do some work for H**nemann, and the communications were some of the worst spelling and grammar I have seen.

I know nothing about SSNs and US employment so I can't comment on that. Otherwise, I haven't found anything against it, so I'm afraid it's "employee beware"

Quote:

The IP is from Simon & Schuster

which also uses the pearson.com servers

I don't know which is worse, finding something definitely wrong, or finding nothing Smile

Posted: Sat Apr 11, 2009 8:38 pm

I couldn't find her email address on any of the sites, but it's in the same format as all of the email addresses I did see, and you found her name in that PDF...

It's weird that they would recruit like that considering my website has little to do with "green eggs and ham."

Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 1:54 am

Associate Editor wrote:

The authors are planning to streamline the upcoming 7th Edition

That'd be pretty hard, considering the author (singular) is dead.

Quote:

The quality is dependent on reviews by pioneers on the forefront of the cuisine including instructors and industry professionals.

Aside from the fact that this sentence doesn't really make sdense, it really sounds as if this person thinks the book is some kind of cookbook or nutritional information book? Confused

Posted: Sun Apr 12, 2009 4:50 am

Titania wrote:

Associate Editor wrote:

The authors are planning to streamline the upcoming 7th Edition

That'd be pretty hard, considering the author (singular) is dead.

Quote:

The quality is dependent on reviews by pioneers on the forefront of the cuisine including instructors and industry professionals.

Aside from the fact that this sentence doesn't really make sdense, it really sounds as if this person thinks the book is some kind of cookbook or nutritional information book? Confused

Remember, I changed the names, lol.

Edit: I didn't feel right about giving my SSN#, I don't want to read a 1200 page book, and my family is going to be here for a week starting tomorrow so I told here that there was a "family emergency" and that I could not do it.