[INDOLOGY] Book Club Invitations

[Antonia Ruppel]

Just thought I’d add my usual two Euro cents on using AI here: simply
search online for scam book club Goodreads (or whatever other platform was
offered to you) and you will find large numbers of actual people telling
you this is actually a scam. (Also, lots of people write genuine emails
with the help of AI, so that alone doesn’t tell you much.)

Your luddite truly,
     Antonia

On Thu 20 Aug 2026 at 22:39, Madhav Deshpande <mmdesh at umich.edu> wrote:

> I also received one of these, but it looked fishy to me. I ran it through
> ChatGPT and was told that this was most likely a scam message.
>
> Madhav
>
> Madhav M. Deshpande
> Professor Emeritus, Sanskrit and Linguistics
> University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA
> Senior Fellow, Oxford Center for Hindu Studies
> Adjunct Professor, National Institute of Advanced Studies, Bangalore, India
>
> [Residence: Campbell, California, USA]
>
>
> On Thu, Aug 20, 2026 at 3:27 PM Antonia Ruppel via INDOLOGY <
> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>
>> Not dozens in my case, but also just two, specifically for Goodreads. It
>> seemed odd to me right from the start that someone wanted to make some poor
>> book club read my Sanskrit textbook, so I never responded.
>>
>> Antonia
>>
>> On Thu 20 Aug 2026 at 22:06, Jeffery Long via INDOLOGY <
>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>
>>> Dear Patrick, I receive these almost daily. Like you, I took it at face
>>> value at first. But it’s a scam. I started putting these emails through an
>>> AI detector. They have all come up as 100% written by AI. I now delete them
>>> reflexively. All the best! Jeff
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> Sent from Yahoo Mail for iPhone
>>> <https://mail.onelink.me/107872968?pid=nativeplacement&c=Global_Acquisition_YMktg_315_Internal_EmailSignature&af_sub1=Acquisition&af_sub2=Global_YMktg&af_sub3=&af_sub4=100000604&af_sub5=EmailSignature__Static_&af_ios_store_cpp=9d3a686e-218d-4849-8298-b480188dc8ac&af_android_url=https%3A%2F%2Fplay.google.com%2Fstore%2Fapps%2Fdetails%3Fid%3Dcom.yahoo.mobile.client.android.mail%26listing%3Demail_signature>
>>>
>>> On Thursday, August 20, 2026, 5:51 PM, Uskokov, Aleksandar via INDOLOGY <
>>> indology at list.indology.info> wrote:
>>>
>>> Dear Patrick,
>>>
>>> I have received these as well, though not quite a dozen, more like two.
>>> I had the same experience, an initial brief exchange until it was obvious
>>> that they want money.
>>>
>>> Best wishes
>>> Aleksandar
>>>
>>> Get Outlook for iOS <https://aka.ms/o0ukef>
>>> ------------------------------
>>> *From:* INDOLOGY <indology-bounces at list.indology.info> on behalf of
>>> Patrick Olivelle via INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
>>> *Sent:* Thursday, 20 August 2026 17:28:19
>>> *To:* INDOLOGY <indology at list.indology.info>
>>> *Subject:* [INDOLOGY] Book Club Invitations
>>>
>>> Dear All:
>>>
>>> Just wanted to alert you all to a scam that is widespread. Someone,
>>> generally with only a first name, sends an email saying he/she is leading a
>>> large book club and would like to read a book of yours. They want you to
>>> support this effort, and with the added advantage of publicity for the
>>> book. Over the past year or so I must have received at least a dozen such
>>> requests. I did respond to the first one, and with the third email there
>>> was a request for money, small amount like a couple of hundred dollars, so
>>> help with expenses — and she said this is NOT a pay to pay scan. I stopped
>>> responding. Wonder how many have received similar emails.
>>>
>>> With warm good wishes,
>>>
>>> Patrick
>>>
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