A Substack Scam?
Information so you can learn how to protect yourself.
**UPDATE** So they now call themselves “The Newsletter Academy” Removed the “official-looking” stuff, so they don’t look like they are an official Substack entity.
Maybe they legit didn’t think it through. Maybe. I’m still not impressed. They still gained over 100 subscribers in a few days utilising Substack’s name. So how are they going to show writers like
But now they’ve gained that quick boost in numbers, others will see the names that follow “The Newsletter Academy” and they’ll follow. So they ruined their supposed reason for staying anonymous, which was to show how anyone can do it.
So some of my readers will remember the Medium community scam I uncovered not so long ago. I shared the information here and on Medium, and a few other platforms I write on. The main reason is so people can identify simple things that set off little red flags. If you get enough of those little red flags in quick succession, it will give you enough doubt to just be cautious.
The other reason. If I save just one person from being scammed out of their hard-earned money. It’s worth it to me. And I did. I had a few comments on my article thanking me for writing it as they two had been approached in the same way, and were considering it. Unfortunately, a few people commented they wished they’d seen my article earlier, as they had lost a fair chunk of money to the scam.
I used to actively hunt and expose scammers in crypto, every day. I was quite good at it, without any training on how to do so. No technical skills besides what I have taught myself over the years. I don’t do that anymore, but what I learned over the years has stuck with me. And my intuition, I always listen to it as it’s never let me down. I’ve never been wrong about a suspected scam that I’ve exposed. There will always be a first time. I’m not scared to be wrong or apologise if I am.
So why do I feel like this is a scam waiting to happen? Even if it’s not a scam, it still doesn’t sit right with me, and I’ll show you why. The first little red flag I got was this.
Can you spot it? It’s a tactic that scammers have been using across all industries for a long time. One letter that’s wrong, that you would miss if you were preoccupied. Scammers will replace the letter O, with a 0. The letter l with a 1. Or in this case, the letter u, with a v. Because at first glance, wow, Substack Writing Academy followed me? I didn’t know Substack had a writing academy.
It looks official and we are all writers trying to build a successful newsletter are we not? So this looks like an exciting opportunity to learn how to do just that.
At first glance.
So I took a closer look. Created on the 3rd of June, with one real post. 100 followers already. Wow, and many writers I know following them. Maybe this is legit. Wait. Why are they now the $ubstack?
Another one of those little tricks scammers like to use. So I looked into a few comments and the first one I read, as you can see in my screenshot above. Their reason for not revealing their identity. Well, that’s plausible, I guess. We’ll circle back to this. The other definite little red flag, is the typos. Scammers are notoriously poor spellers and worse editors. We all make typos, absolutely. I expect I will have a couple in here, even after I edit. This is why they are little red flags.
They did respond, and I feel their explanation doesn’t cut it. As you can see by my response. The classic “glitch in the system”. If you are ever trying to get a refund from someone, and they say there’s a “glitch in the system”. You aren’t getting your money back. They tried to be creative in using Svbstack and $ubstack. I mean that made me laugh. It just reminded me of Weird Al’s song “Word Crimes”.
Just keep in mind that be, see, are, you
Are words, not letters
Get it together, use your spell checker
You should never
Write words using numbers
Unless you're seven, or your name is Prince
So remember I said we’ll circle back to this anonymous part. Well, let’s have a look at this because I’d rather know that the person who is showing me how to do a thing, actually knows, how to do the thing.
Sure, I can understand why it’s an intentional part of the project, however, they are saying this, while trying to appear like an official Substack entity. So they don’t want you to subscribe just based on their name. But they are more than happy to ride those coattails of a bigger name. Make that make sense.
They want to demonstrate how anyone can grow from scratch, starting as a complete beginner. Yet, that’s another issue altogether. Even the legit big names out there, have masterclasses on this very topic. They charge hundreds of dollars for these courses. Even they can’t show you how you can grow from scratch, starting as a complete beginner.
They can show you what did work and what didn’t work from them, as an experienced writer who has done it. They can give you coaching, and guidance on this. But they can’t show you how YOU can do it. They aren’t you.
So to say this is why you are staying anonymous is misleading. Because without calling themselves the “$vbstack Writing Acadamy” or any variation of this, there is no way they would have got 100 subscribers in 3 days. So they’ve already failed at showing you how anyone can do it from scratch.
Our parting words. I have emailed Substack directly with information I got early on. They will hopefully do their thing, but I have my doubts there as well. There have been some disturbing articles I’ve read, with the receipts, that show Substack only cares about making bank, not about the community. Of course, I’m not surprised by this. I haven’t been surprised by anything like that since Google dropped their slogan “Do no evil”, because they weren’t fooling anyone anymore.
So what do you think my fellow writers? Also, I know that they aren’t asking for money, so how is it a scam? Besides the fact, it doesn’t have to be just financial to be a scam, not straight away. Many scammers will take the time to build up your trust in them. Before fleecing you. Trust me, the money part is coming.
At worst, I am wrong about this being a scam and I’ll apologise. But I’ve still given you tips on what to look for to better protect yourself from being scammed.
I’m still right about them riding the coattails of Substack’s name and trying to appear official. Personally, if I was Substack, I’d be putting a stop to it. Unauthorised use of their name. If anyone is going to start a Substack Academy, you’d think Substack would be all over that.
If I hear anything back from Substack, I’ll update you on that.
Be alert writing fam, and don’t forget to follow my project
where , , and myself are working on building a community, platform, and more. www.writerswithoutwalls.com, writers supporting writers.
Thanks for the tag, I subscribed as I'm curious who's behind it.