He thinks I'm young, confused and struggling

Substack is an online platform for writers who wish to target potential new readers with intriguing free content - news, opinion pieces, essays, and life-experience articles - and then get them to upgrade to better stuff with a paid subscription. They want your money, and offer a kickback if you refer your friends to them. More grist to their mill, of course. The writer's aim is to generate sufficient subscription income to make a nice living out of it. There's a review of how Substack works for the writer here: https://selzy.com/en/blog/what-is-substack/. 

Writers who sign up for a Substack account need to build a following who will subscribe to their regular emailed output. So the articles they produce must be appealing and relevant to the potential reader's point of view, their prejudices, their beliefs and their self-perception. 

I've been targeted by one of these writers. A first email came four days ago, followed up by an email each day since. They all came from this email address: lifeuplift@substack.com, and the author was someone called M Hamza Ibrar. 

First email on 22nd November (moved to spam box)

Title: You're on the list! 

My reaction: This looked suspicious. I marked it as spam. Google moved it to my spam box, where future emails would now be diverted. 

Second email on 23rd November (straight to spam box, but I checked it for content)

Title: Ever Since I Was 13, All I Wanted Was to Be in Love

Subtitle: A surprising lesson in why waiting to find "the one" is okay - and maybe even necessary

My reaction: It was an essay, apparently written by a woman author and now republished, about why - for various important reasons - one should wait for the right person to love. If I were young and craved a relationship, this might be worth reading: but neither thing applies. Disturbingly, there was this notice embedded in the email:

Deep Mind? It sounds sinister! I don't think it's Google DeepMind. And what was that 'other platform' I was 'moved' from? I'm still on Google Blogger, and that's the only place my posts have ever appeared. Hmm! I'm on my guard.

Third email on 25rd November (straight to spam box, but I checked it for content)

Title: Comfort Is Killing You! Honest Advice to Someone who Feels Behind in Life

Subtitle: Think you're not ready for success? This surprising shift will have you taking action immediately

My reaction: An essay on getting out of one's comfort zone and doing what needs to be done to achieve an end, without waiting for perfect conditions, and without worrying about other people's bad reactions. Again, were I feeling sorry for myself, afraid of consequences, and trapped in a rut, the advice might help. But none of that applies.

Fourth email, later on 25rd November (straight to spam box, but I checked it for content)

Title: Why You Should Become a Paid Subscriber and Get Even More Value!

Subtitle: Unlock Exclusive Insights, Social Media Tips, and Personal Growth Strategies That Will Take You to the Next Level!

My reaction: The author explains what he's offering for a modest $5 a month subscription. I won't paraphrase it. Here are the actual screenshots:

It speaks for itself. I think he must be targeting young, insecure people with low self-esteem - malleable and easily-led people. I don't know why he thinks I'm one of them. Do I come across - in my Blog or in my Flickr photos - as ineffectual or confused? I hope not. And 'real life' is not to be found in 'books, movies and TV shows'. Only fantasy, fiction and escapism.

The admission that his Medium account was suspended is a source of concern. Medium is a similar platform to Substack for writers. What happened? What did he do? Did he infringe their rules in some way? Whatever it was, it doesn't reassure me, and I won't be bringing him to my friends' notice. 

I remain wary. There's no compelling reason to have anything more to do with these emails, not even to have the satisfaction of getting to the bottom of it. I think there's an influencer at work here, feeding ideas to the kind of immature person who hasn't yet learned to be discriminating and worldly-wise. And what if those articles are in fact AI-generated? If so, the subscriptions would be money for nothing.

I haven't responded to any of the four emails received so far. I don't want to see any more. So how to stop them coming, when (a) they are unsolicited, and (b) I'm certainly not subscribed. There's an 'unsubscribe' option I can click on, but is it safe to use it? It will confirm that my email address is a live one. That could have unwelcome consequences.

I'll see what happens. He may note that I remain unresponsive, and therefore not worth further powder and shot. I hope so.

SEQUEL on 27th November 2024

I carried out further (cautious) research on the Internet, to learn a bit more about Substack, Medium, Deep Mind and M Hamza Ibrar. I became satisfied that Substack was a proper platform for writers offering all kinds of content, including advice on getting one's life in gear. A kind of social media feed, if you will. 'Deep Mind' seemed to be a nom-de-plume of M Hamza Ibrar. His misdemeanour on Medium remained obscure, but his web pages there were inaccessible and the word 'investigation' appeared in the standard brief explanation for no access. Hmm.

This morning (27th November) I received a fifth email from him. Another article, about letting go and moving forward from failure and self-blame. Not a personal concern, although relevant enough for anyone crushed by mistakes they had made and the consequences that flowed from them. But all of the 'advice' could have been AI-generated. 

I concluded that this was at worst a low-level scam to extract a subscription from me and thousands of others. I decided to 'unsubscribe'. 

It looks as if that went through without anything bad happening. Fingers crossed there are no unwelcome future developments.

I remain wondering how I got onto this author's emailing list in the first place. I generally stick to favourite bookmarked websites on the subjects that interest me - such as websites on photography - and I don't trawl the Internet searching (for instance) for the meaning of life, or how to turn myself into a better person. But I must have been a blip on someone's radar screen, and perhaps they sold my email address to this author. 'They' could have been Google itself. Who knows. 

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