The Anti-Scammer Revolution Has Started!

A reflection on managing those who seek to spoil Medium (and our work)

Would you like to know how I generated an image so close to the original?

Well, the answer is simple: I didn’t.

A couple of days ago, I received the 1st block of my Medium career! (cheers!).

My first reaction was a bit of human disappointment.

Then, upon reflection, it gradually faded away, and I came up with an idea that I never would have expected when I saw the error message on the screen:

She did well

Why Did She Think I Was A Scammer?

Now, if you don’t know me, it’s better to specify that I haven’t been aggressive or inappropriate (if I had, this article would be meaningless).

On the contrary, I’ve made the total reading of all articles a core value of mine, to the extent that I’ve made it the cornerstone of my presentation (which is titled “Why I’m On Medium” not by coincidence).

As I always do, I highlighted, commented and clapped, in this order.

Since I was interested in her stories, I also subscribed. After a few days of silence in my inbox, I checked her profile, and found the message I screenshotted above.

After thinking a while about while, I came to this answer:

I had been to fast.

I don’t mean I gave her too much attention at once.

I mean that my highlights, comments and claps came too close one to another, giving the idea I didn’t actually read the content.

This is a great piece of advice I give to everyone, scammers included!
If you want to fake a real interest:

Make sure to allow a time gap between the first and last notification that is at least half the article’s reading time
(PS: Of course, the easiest way to do so is by reading the whole story and leaving valuable feedback…)

The Most Common Form of Scamming

Given that I’m ok, why do I say she did well?

The most common form of scamming on Medium is based on reciprocity (the 1st of Cialdini’s principles, just to give an idea about its strength).

Those scammers are often newbies looking for fast growth, who interact with everything that comes their way, hoping to be reciprocated, watching their profile grow.

Of course, they don’t read a single word of what they clap, and they don’t build any valuable engagement: they’re just looking for vanity metrics, but the algorithm doesn’t know it and pays them anyway.

In this way, they kill your read ratio and your earnings, and that’s why I’m saying that person, if, for whatever reasons, thought these were my intentions, did well to block me.

Why Do Such People Behave This Way?

In other words: what’s the advantage of building an inconsistent engagement?

From a scammer’s pov, volatile engagement is better than no engagement.

On Medium, everyone, not just them, needs to get their name out there to be read.

They aim for big numbers. If you just clap, you can interact with a significantly larger number of authors than those you can engage with by actually reading the articles.

Many people know this game, and just ignore them. But if just 2 people out of 10 reply, they get more people engaged than the ones they would deserve.

In Conclusion: How To Deal With Scammers?

I wanted to write an article starting from the girl who blocked me because I noticed that many people have started to adopt a similar approach (I’ve seen several articles and comments about this).

AI, and increasingly fierce competition, are just some of the factors that are generating more and more scammers, but more and more authors choose to protect their read ratio in the most drastic existing way:

by blocking them.

Is this always the best option? It depends.

In some cases, they can be useful. For example, if your story hasn’t generated many interactions, even those from a scammer can help make it more appealing.

Mind you, I’m not saying that filling your articles with fake comments will attract more honest readers! I’m just saying that, instinctively (And I’m telling you this as a reader first, then as a writer, and finally as a neurobiologist), an article with a comment is more attractive than an empty one. That’s all.

In this case, simply ignoring them will suffice, and they will have been harmless. Personally, I also ignore those who do it only once.

But when they start entering every article you’ve written, leaving only claps and destroying months of work, then set aside any qualms and block them.
You’re not doing anything strange or wrong, you’re just defending your work and your reputation!

That’s how, two days ago, I blocked my first stalking scammer.

My read ratio shot up instantly, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence…

To the next time!