June 2, 2026: Don't Fall For The Fake Steve

A (properly) suspicious fan forwarded us this mail. Is it bogus? Absolutely.

It pretended to be from me, and said, in part . . .

"Over time, I've successfully worked on 46 Kickstarter campaigns, with many of them reaching their funding goals within the first 72 hours. Because of these consistent results and the strategies I've used to generate early traction, I've been invited to take part in a new mentorship initiative focused on helping creators improve their campaign performance. This mentorship program is completely free . . ."

Nope. Totally fake. I suspect that if you answer mail like this, you wind up corresponding with an AI that agrees with everything you say, swears that your design work is brilliant and you just need help with crowdsourcing techniques, and so on. And eventually you're invited into an advanced program that isn't free, but cross its mechanical heart, it's worth it . . . just send all your money . . .

Don't go there!

If you are truly interested in learning more about crowdsourcing techniques, reply in the forums. If there's interest, Darryll and I will write an Illuminator about legitimate sources of help and information.

-- Steve Jackson