Via today’s New York Times, there’s an extremely strange phishing epidemic that affects both established, big-name authors and newbies alike—basically anybody involved in a querying and/or publication cycle. Someone is impersonating editors and agents, requesting drafts of manuscripts in progress toward publication, then “disappearing” the manuscripts. No one thus far has an adequate theory as to what happens to the drafts that have been stolen. They’re not being published online; there’ve been no ransom demands, no threatening follow-ups. The perpetrator seems to be someone with extensive expertise and contacts in publishing.

Since I’m not querying at the moment, I’m out of the loop that might be affected by this weird business, but it looks as if those of you who are should be extra vigilant. Confirm with your agents and editors that the requests for your latest draft are legitimate. Inspect email addresses carefully. A tactic appears to be substituting “rn” for “m” in some names.

The article will fill you in with more detail. Let us know if you’ve experienced a version of this.