Fill In the Blank Solicitation

Posted: Monday, October 19, 2026 at 05:20 PM | Categories: Phishing

I received an email today from a scammer (or who knows what) and I laughed out loud. The idiot sending the message left it peppered with template code rather than the values. Check it out...

Hi [First Name],

I checked [Website URL] across four AI search experiences: ChatGPT, Gemini, Perplexity, and Google AI.

Some businesses competing with you are appearing in relevant results, while your brand has limited coverage in comparison. We’re a USA-based team and noticed a few ways you could potentially strengthen your visibility.

Can I send over a few findings?

Best,

Prarthana

P.S. If you’d prefer not to hear from us again, just reply with “NO” in the subj

I get these messages all the time and I have to laugh because its clear that they really know nothing about my site. I get messages about search page optimization (who cares, it's my personal blog), or design (who cares, I use a professional template). Such nonsense.

There's no way I'd reply to this message, but just in case you're not sure, here's some things to look at:

• The message is from Arun Rao, but the signature says Prarthana
• The message says its from arjun.rao@innoventraai.com but the reply-to address is joshua.thomas@mobrilz.si
• Perplexity is one of the search experiences listed. Perplexity?

Anyway, I didn't reply, neither should you if you get one of these.

Header image: Image by Mohamed Hassan from Pixabay