A scammer just stole £30k of literary prize money – and is trying to steal more

The literary industry seems largely bemused by a scam or series of related scams that have been going on for several years.

Unpublished book manuscripts are being stolen [0] and the motives are unclear. For instance, they apparently haven't resurfaced elsewhere by rip-off artists selling them to highest bidder.

Prize money has been stolen by phishing emails. But these are relatively small amounts and infrequently available, compared to other targets. Perhaps there's just a favourable risk-effort-benefit ratio to these attacks for small-time scammers. A particular streak of efforts followed a repeatable pattern, suggesting a single person or small team [1].

Perhaps the industrial-scale level of data piracy and phishing makes attacks like this a profitable long-tail worth rinsing?

[0] https://archive.is/kY50G

[1] https://archive.is/GvOF5