When AI Makes Fraud Look Professional

This has happened enough times now that it’s worth talking about.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve received multiple emails pitching the same “opportunity”: someone finds my GitHub or LinkedIn, notes I’m US-based, and proposes a partnership where I’d be the face, they’d do the technical work from overseas, and we’d split the revenue. They frame it as legitimate. It isn’t. It’s identity and contract fraud.

What’s notable is the outreach itself. It’s polished, personalized, and well-structured. It had the kind of writing that used to signal a real professional had made an effort. Now it signals something different. The em dashes in the email are a recurring tell (though not absolute proof—I like using them when I write).

I’m a genuine AI advocate. I use it to improve my work, and I regularly look for new ways to apply it. But this is the other edge of that technology: convincing fraud outreach at scale, cheap to produce, easy to personalize.

The bar for “this looks legitimate” just got a lot lower. Adjust accordingly.

Seeing this too? I’m curious how widespread it is.