BLOGGER ALERT: Grammarly SCAM

Hello All! Just wanted to pass along some important information. I received the following email from a Grammarly rep. back in November. The email weirded me out, and so I did not reply. There were two immediate red flags:

On Wed Nov 27 2013 11:57AM, Nikolas Baron <nbaron@grammarly.com> wrote:

Hi Jill,

I just stumbled across your review of “Freckles” (which is fantastic, by the way) and thought to myself, “What a perfect fit!” As a part of our Blogger Partnership Program, we’re currently looking to sponsor similar blog posts with an $20 Amazon gift card in exchange for a small text ad placement. 

In case you haven’t heard of us, Grammarly is an automated online proofreader that finds and explains pesky grammar, spelling, and punctuation mistakes that are bound to find their way into your writing. If you'd like to join our 3 million users and try the premium version of our proofreader for free, let me know and I'll make it happen!

Please send me the expected publishing date and topic of your next appropriate blog post (ideally something about books or writing) so I can give you the details you’ll need to participate. 

Cheers and a happy Thanksgiving,
Nick

P.S. Let me know if you ever find yourself in foggy San Francisco; I’d love to grab some coffee. :)

I have never written a review for Freckles. Not on Goodreads, Amazon or my blog. And to end your pitch with asking to grab coffee?! Yea, weird. Then I received a follow up email at the end of last month:

Hi Jill,

I just wanted to check in with you regarding my email about our Blogger Partnership Program from a few weeks ago. 

Are you interested in participating? If so, let me know when you were thinking of publishing your next post so I can send you all the details you need in time.

Cheers,

Nick

P.S. In addition to the blog sponsorship I mentioned, we offer all partner bloggers a free, no-signup, 30-day premium account on Grammarly

This is when I started doing a bit of research. This Grammarly "guy" is offering a $20 GC and free premium trial membership to the site. Seemed a bit much, for such a small mention in a post. I don't really want to get into a blogger ethics rant, but I will say I have never--and will never--accept money for any type of post. Just thinking about it gives me the wiggins. 

My search led me first to the actual Grammarly website (which seems to be a legitimate and widely used site) where the reviews and testimonials are glowing.

There are also several sites that have reviews and breakdowns about Grammarly (I would list them here, but honestly, you could type Grammarly Scam into Google and do just as well), where the reviews are much less glowing.

I ended up at Poisoned Rationality's blog post, from back in October 2013, where she discusses her encounter with what is now, positively a SCAM. 

So, I decided to agree to the Ad placement in order to see what the response, if any, would be. It took weeks, but "Nick" finally got back to me. 

Hi Jill,

I apologize for the delayed response. Here's what you need to do to get your gift card: 

1. Paste the following text into the top of your next blog post: 
   
   "Use Grammarly's plagiarism checker online because [insert clever/funny reason here]." (e.g. "copy-cats are not nearly as cute as the original!")
2. Publish the post on your blog and email me the link.
3. We'll send you your $20 gift card via email within 72h. 

The best clever/funny reason for using Grammarly each month wins a $100 Amazon gift card!

Looking forward to your post.

Cheers,

Nick

It turns out that bloggers have been receiving these emails since last year, but not necessarily receiving their promised reward. I have run across a scarce few who, after hounding "Nick" and fully pursuing this issue, have gotten hold of their GC. It also appears that originally, the offer was for $150GC! That's insane. Tempting to many, but absolutely insane. So, now I know that Grammarly is trying to get a bit smarter. The emails have become a bit more personalized and the amount of the GC has gone WAY down. However, that does not mean that this is any less of a scam. 

Hope this helps fellow bloggers! It's sad that we have to be so paranoid and alert to scams nowadays. But, if you get an email like this, do your research!