Early this week I received an email from a friend and reader-of-this-blog with the subject line 'Trouble'. Being somewhat concerned, I opened it straight away, and then chuckled with disbelief. It was a scam letter saying she was stuck in London, her credit cards were inaccessible etc. etc. and please could I help.
So why did I chuckle? First of all, months ago I received a similar but less grammatically correct mail from a fellow author. Also, I happened to know that my friend, although not at home, was in San Francisco rather than London.
Thirdly, and perhaps more interestingly, I realized straight away that the way the scammer (why are they always in London??) expressed him or herself simply didn't ring right. As authors, we become quite sensitive to that mysterious attribute known as 'voice'. This was not my friend's.
But, on a last note, my husband happened to be attending the same meeting as she. He told me she received lots of offers of monetary help. Yes, Jemima, there are generous people out there. What a pity we also have to be on our guard. It's nice, though, that we can rely on our scam sensors.
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