So more bots/scammers are impersonating me

I do not have Telegram and I do not want you to invest in crypto.

An example of the weird scammer messages, provided by a reader

Hey Medium fam, I don’t really do social media, so once again, this is kinda the only way I can make announcements to you all:

There are bots/scammers pretending to be me on this platform. I have no idea why, but if you get a message like the one above that looks suspicious, please ignore it or report it.

I got a message from one of my readers a while ago that they’d received a comment/message on Medium that appeared to be from me, saying “Anna Mercury” with my usual image, asking them to invest in some crypto thing. They exchanged messages with the scammer for a bit before getting suspicious and emailing me about it through my website. I was pretty shocked/horrified to find this out and asked them to ignore it or report it to Medium ASAP.

It happened again to that reader, and they sent me another screenshot, this time asking them to contact me through Telegram. The same thing just happened to another one of my readers today. (Update: And a third. Apparently the fake-me is advertising a “writer’s group” that I allegedly belong to, along with Barack Obama. I just… lmao. No.)

I’ve reported the issue to Medium, but for now, I want to make very clear to all of you:

1. This is not me.
2. I am never going to message you on Medium asking to chat. I’m never going to ask you to buy or invest in anything. I don’t have Telegram.
3. Comments or private comments from me will pertain to the story in question. I will never contact you over Medium asking you to contact me personally. If I want to speak with you privately, I will email you. If you want to speak with me privately, you can contact me through my website.
4. If you get a message that appears to be from me and looks suspicious, ignore it or report it, but please don’t engage. It’s a scam and I don’t want you getting hurt.