It used to be that if you ran an internet scam, the game was to lure people in with the possibility of gaining a small fortune. Now scammers are appealing to our moral compasses to make money. Case in point: I got a very confusing email recently, and following the lead of social science blogging super-hero Andrew Gelman, I’m posting a redacted version here.
Hi Jason,
My name is [name removed] and I came across nonparibus.wordpress.com after searching for people that have referenced or mentioned climate change and global warming. I am part of a team of designers and researchers that put together an infographic showing how bad climate change has gotten and how it’s contributing to the destruction of our planet. I thought you might be interested, so I wanted to reach out.
If this is the correct email and you’re interested in using our content, I’d be happy to share it with you. 🙂
Thank you,
[name removed]
I think this is some kind of meta-blogspam: get me to post their infographic, then include Amazon referral links or something to make money.
There’s almost zero chance this is legitimate or sincere. My only post that mentions climate change is one pointing out that it’s overstated as a cause of fluctuations in rainfall in Malawi and that that is probably be a bad thing. However, if the probably-a-scambot climate change activist reader who emailed me wants to explain why this isn’t bogus, I’m all ears.
I got that one too, but I’ve posted about climate change several times so it was at least plausible. I responded with a variant of “Is this just spam? If not, who are you affiliated with? What kind of science do you do?” So far, no reply. At least it’s better than the ones for infographics about higher-ed, I get that one about once a week.
I used to reply but it’s just getting ridiculous. And maybe this can serve as a PSA for people unfamiliar with Amazon referral link spam.