In January of this year (2025), I was diagnosed with ADHD. Knowing nothing about the condition, I did what I always do when something suddenly grabs my attention, and went onto Amazon to buy exactly four books on the subject. Which, it turns out, is quite an ADHD thing to do.
My Dad also bought a book from Amazon, because he's a nice like that, and wanted to understand his son's condition. I bought the Audible version and started with that, instead of the four books I had bought, so that my Dad and I would be able to have discussions about my ADHD with the same information.
The book was an AI-generated fake. The text was created with an AI platform like ChatGPT, from a prompt as simple as, "write me a self-help book for men diagnosed with ADHD in their 20s and 30s". The text was AI-generated, the voice narrating the audiobook version was AI-generated, the photo of the "author" on the author page was AI-generated. This scam targets people who are vulnerable and those who want to help vulnerable people close to them.
The advice in these book is dangerous and factually inaccurate. This book, for example, paints men with ADHD as violent and abusive partners and friends who will inevitably hurt and drive away the people they care about in their lives. It contains countless factual errors from the absurd to the offensive. God knows what kind of "advice" the AI-generated books on depression, bereavement and grief have to offer readers.
This book - along with countless others - was being sold through Amazon as an ebook, an audiobook - and a paperback. All published through Amazon's self-publishing arms. This means that not only do the scammers who "create" these books receive your money when they trick you - but Amazon also profits from every fake book sold. The paperback copy proudly states on the back page that it was published by Amazon in the UK.
I am a journalist with a long history covering technology stories. Over a year ago I made it a part of my daily routine to use ChatGPT for at least 30 minutes each day, to keep on top of the technology and the capabilities of AI assistants as multi-billion-dollar companies race to make their AI the next Google Search. It took me four chapters to realise what I was reading and listening to was an AI fake. My Dad wouldn't have worked it out, and neither did a single reviewer of any of the fake books I found on Amazon - whether the reviews were positive or negative.
I picked eight books on Amazon that looked suspect and created a research document. Once I was sure that this scam was widespread (everywhere on Amazon UK - but also easily found on Amazon.de, its German portal), I sent this document to the Guardian's Technology editor as a tip. The editor assigned a reporter to cover this story, who took my findings and had them verified, then brought in experts to comment further. The article confirmed this is a widespread scam on Amazon and provided further examples of AI-generated books available for sale on the platform offering dangerous advice.
This scam will continue to work for as long as people don't realise this is possible. The dangers of these platforms are woefully underreported. But if that changes - if the average internet user becomes as aware of this type of fake AI-generated content as they are of the 'Nigerian Prince' e-mail scam - then the scammers lose.
If you are reporting on this callous, malicious practice and I can help - in any way - please use the contact form here.