[INDOLOGY] Book Club Invitations

Fri Aug 21 12:45:29 UTC 2026

Making outlandish or easily disproven claims is an establishment trick for
email scams. Scammers too only have a limited amount of time. It's much
easier for they can restrict their target pool to people who believe
they're dealing with the representatives of a generous Nigerian prince.

David Slakter

On Fri, Aug 21, 2026, 8:31 AM Jeffery Long via INDOLOGY <
indology at list.indology.info> wrote:

> That’s a great point, Antonia!
>
> That said, these emails have become very transparent. As Ananya mentioned,
> they often claim to be from real, often prominent, people. In the case of
> one of the earlier emails I received of this kind, I contacted the actual
> person from whom it claimed to originate (a journalist from NPR) and that
> person’s assistant informed me that they were aware that someone was using
> his name in a scam.
>
> The most amusing of these emails that I received claimed to be from
> Stephen King! I would like to think that Stephen King reads about Indian
> philosophy, but my suspicion is that he is otherwise occupied.
>
> Looking forward to your Latin and Greek courses,
>
> Jeff
>
> Dr. Jeffery D. Long
> Carl W. Zeigler Professor of Religion, Philosophy, & Asian Studies
> School of Arts & Humanities
> Elizabethtown College
> Elizabethtown, PA
>
> https://etown.academia.edu/JefferyLong
>
> Series Editor, Explorations in Indic Traditions:
> Ethical, Philosophical, and Theological
> Lexington Books
>
> “One who makes a habit of prayer and meditation will easily overcome
> all difficulties and remain calm and unruffled in the midst of the trials
> of life.”  (Holy Mother Sarada Devi)
>
> “We are a way for the Cosmos to know itself.” (Carl Sagan)
>
>
>
> On Aug 20, 2026, at 6:50 PM, Antonia Ruppel <rhododaktylos at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
> 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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>>>>
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