I don't know if any of you have heard of the website, Grammarly? I have and I thought it seemed like a good website, but then realised it wasn't actually free, anyway, moving on. Yesterday I received an email from someone working at Grammarly saying that they would like to advertise their website on my blog in exchange for a $20 Amazon gift-card voucher. When I received this my parents and I were elated, but then when we re-read the email, things seemed a bit...suspicious. When I was on Twitter and I saw my blogging friends had received the same kind of email and Amber from Mile Long Bookshelf also created a post on her suspicions about the email she received, I thought I would also create a post to see what you guys think.
Here is the email I received on Monday 14th October, 2013:
Here is the email I received on Monday 14th October, 2013:
"Hi Kyra,
I just stumbled across your review of “Divergent” (which is fantastic, by the way) and thought to myself, “What a perfect fit!” We’re currently looking to sponsor bookworm bloggers like yourself with a small text ad to appear in one of your blog posts in exchange for a $20 Amazon gift card.
In case you haven’t heard of us, Grammarly is an automated online proofreader that finds and explains pesky grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes that are bound to find their way into any writer’s first draft. Think of us as a digital second pair of eyes that saves you the embarrassment of making a silly mistake on anything from book reviews to manuscripts. If you'd like to join our 4 million users and try the premium version of our proofreader for free, let me know and I'll make it happen!
Please send me the expected publishing date and topic of your next appropriate blog post (ideally something about books or writing) so I can give you the details you’ll need.
Cheers,
Nick
I just stumbled across your review of “Divergent” (which is fantastic, by the way) and thought to myself, “What a perfect fit!” We’re currently looking to sponsor bookworm bloggers like yourself with a small text ad to appear in one of your blog posts in exchange for a $20 Amazon gift card.
In case you haven’t heard of us, Grammarly is an automated online proofreader that finds and explains pesky grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes that are bound to find their way into any writer’s first draft. Think of us as a digital second pair of eyes that saves you the embarrassment of making a silly mistake on anything from book reviews to manuscripts. If you'd like to join our 4 million users and try the premium version of our proofreader for free, let me know and I'll make it happen!
Please send me the expected publishing date and topic of your next appropriate blog post (ideally something about books or writing) so I can give you the details you’ll need.
Cheers,
Nick
P.S. Let me know if you ever find yourself in foggy San Francisco; I’d love to grab some coffee. :)"
This seemed completely harmless to me and I probably would've replied to the email, had it not been for that last sentence there at the bottom. "Let me know if you ever find yourself in foggy San Francisco; I'd love to grab some coffee:)"
Excuse me? Meet me for coffee in San Franciso?
I don't where to begin with how wrong this is.
Firstly, this is supposed to be an email coming from a professional and they're saying that they want to meet up in San Francisco? I don't know if this is a scam, but I'm pretty sure it is. Especially since most of my blogging friends got sent almost the exact same email.
I don't know if this person is actually Grammarly or not, but I will not be replying to this email or going through with it. I don't know if this person does actually work for Grammarly and if it is and they just wanted to be friendly, they should've thought this through. And if it is some perverted person pretending to be Grammarly then it just shows us how careful we need to be when blogging. As we often forget about the dangers that comes along with spending a lot of time on the internet.
What do you think of this?