37 Comments
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Sean Murphy's avatar

Full points for a prompt and thorough retraction. It's getting easier to get fooled. My take-away is the next time I am approached with a pay-for-play is to contact someone on the masthead and ask if this is their policy. There is a lot of pay-for-play or "cover our production expenses" outreach but I now see there is good money to be made impersonating employees of reputable organizations. So if it's someone I would want to get coverage from making a pay-for-play offer I will double check.

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Kate Stanton's avatar

There are so many targeting musicians. It’s truly heartbreaking.

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Paul Gregutt's avatar

Just based on the over-the-top too hip for words email 'she' sent all of my warning bells were chiming. But no one is impervious to scammers any more. With any and all privacy gone, every time you click on a page, look up a product, or research a topic you are opening up the Pandora's box of scammer potential. I get dozens every day. and you must get hundreds. Thanks for all the great work and keep on truckin'...

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josh terry's avatar

Sorry, Ted, but you should know better. You have a big platform and reporting experience. If something feels fishy, look into it before you claim that a major publication engages in pay-to-play.

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Terrell Dunn's avatar

I appreciate this - retraction and apology, straight up.

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Beth Hilton's avatar

These offers are especially rampant on IG. Sadly, some publications are allowing paid placements (Spin, Rolling Stone UK, India, etc), and entire "PR" agencies are popping up to handle execution of these glorified ads. The artists/labels know better, and they do it anyway. Will fans know the difference, though?

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Pierre-Marie Bernard's avatar

Anybody can get fooled these days. Good that you reacted fast.

Perhaps another takeaway from this is that she "sold" you a narrative that you were ready to buy, as it aligned with many of the points you correctly make in this newsletter every week.

You were "presold" in a way because what she said confirmed your general opinion on the state of that business.

We should always be suspicious of our own ideas and that's the hardest thing to do.

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Muriel Palmer-Rhea's avatar

Thanks for the heads-up, Ted! Sorry it happened to you!

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DavidGiragosian's avatar

How much skepticism do you need to be an honest broker??

Aren't we most human when we fall short?

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John M Rodriguez's avatar

We are all human and make mistakes.

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The Mindful Troubadour's avatar

Dude I really really like your Substack but this was a clickbait. You did NOT get scammed as your better sense prevailed. What am I missing?

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HBD's avatar

That was my initial thought as well. But it occurred to me that he got scammed in the sense that he acted as if this person was telling him the truth, when he wasn’t. So while the scam attempt did not result in his paying $60, it did lead to Ted acting as if what the scammer was doing was telling the truth. That is, he fell for the scam, despite not spending the money.

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Saunders Jones Jr's avatar

Happened to me on Sound Cloud. Scammers are everywhere.

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Bruce L. Nelson's avatar

I ponder, what could the scammers become if they poured their time, energy and tenacity into creating legit business pursuits? Can the money really be so good that it rewards living in seedy shadows of the internet and life?

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Treekllr's avatar

Maybe they enjoy it. Its naive to assume everyone wants to be good.

And theres no reason a decent and upright person irl couldnt also be "living in seedy shadows of the internet".

In short, you assume too much, about both good and bad people, and their motivations.

Also, legit business pursuits arent so easy to obtain these days. You can work smart and hard and still fall flat.

Good and bad coexist, must coexist(if history is any guide). The answer to why are bad people bad is the same as to why good people are good. This simple fact seems to be uncomprehensible* to many people. But in fact its necessary for the world. The greatest good cannot, will not, exist without its opposing greatest evil.

Something to think about, really.

* i thought uncomprehendable looked wrong lol

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Steven Knipp's avatar

Why not tell people her name - even if it is fake - and put her ten-year-old social media site online so, at the very least, she will have to create a new one?

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Kate Stanton's avatar

I’m glad you’ve shared your cautionary tale. I recently had an impersonator on X that was reaching out to people via DMs which I never do. It felt awful. The lack of integrity is what bothers me—I want to believe people are who they say they are and these instances prove otherwise.

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Karen Bennett's avatar

Ted, you're Italian-American! "To trust is good/not to trust is better."

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Damien Masterson's avatar

I could tell from the text it was a scam.. and as much as I love people admiring my music, it's usually a red flag if that's

the subject line.

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