// KOTAKU — GAMING
A Scam Website Is Trying To Cash In On AO3 Outage By ‘Selling’ Audiobooks Of Fanfics
In an attempt to prey on individuals bereft of free things to read in the wake of the massive AO3 outage, a new website has seemingly popped up out of the ether, promising readers all their favorite fanfictions and the authors of said fanfics a bit of cash. The website, AO3.life (which I will not link to for reasons that will become apparent soon) purports to be the salvation of the actual AO3, the fanfiction website which was recently taken offline after a security incident and may remain down for weeks. This new website appears to have scraped a cached version of AO3, as users report older versions of their work on it, as well as works that have been deleted or made private.
The fact that this site uses AO3’s name and hosts an outdated, unauthorized version of the fanfiction website, one where works have been reposted without the authors’ consent, is bad enough. But there’s also the stank of scam permeating ao3.life. The website claims that it pays authors by selling their works as audiobooks with the proceeds split, “91% to the author, 9% to ao3.life.” All you have to do, the site claims, to either receive your cash or to remove your fics from this felonious-ass site is send them an email from the account tied to your AO3 profile.
As many users on social media have pointed out, this is an elaborate phishing/doxxing attempt. The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), the parent non-profit behind AO3, is aware of the situation and is taking steps to get the site taken down. On the AO3 subreddit, a moderator posted a message from OTW being sent to users reporting ao3.life. “We are aware and are taking action, but please be patient because the legal system is much slower than online life,” it read.
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