Not a finance post today, but something I feel compelled to write about after one of the strangest experiences of my life. It's also a scam warning, and it's good to share those. So pull up a chair, put your python IDE and copy of Advanced Futures Trading Strategies down, and relax whilst I tell you a story.
A few weeks ago I was sent the following email:
Hi Robert,
I’m the organizer of Classics Book Club London, ages 20 to 45, a community of over 1,000 active readers who are drawn to rigorous nonfiction that explores finance, risk management, disciplined thinking, and practical skill-building. Leveraged Trading stood out to me as a strong fit for the kind of analytical and strategy-focused discussions my members value.
I’m interested in featuring Leveraged Trading at an upcoming Classics Book Club London event. I usually host meetups near a pub by London Bridge, with occasional events in Chelsea. Participation is completely free, and any drinks or snacks at the venue are entirely optional.
Author attendance is completely optional. If attending is not convenient, I can send three short questions by email instead. Your responses would be shared with members during the meetup, allowing readers to engage more deeply with your approach to disciplined system design, risk control, and responsible use of leverage without requiring you to be there live.
Would you be open to having Leveraged Trading featured at an upcoming Classics Book Club London event?
Warmly,
Ben Jarvis
Organizer at Classics Book club London age 20-45
This was a little unusual but not totally. I have done talks in rooms above pubs before, although I have never been invited to a book club so I was intrigued. It was also very obvious the email had been written eithier by, or with the help of AI, but I am trying to be less 'judgy' as the kids say so I let it pass. Plus, it's an excuse to go to a pub.
I did a quick google and sure enough they exist:
https://www.meetup.com/classics-book-club-london-ages-20-40/
So I replied:
Oh hi.
That sounds cool. I would like to attend (though I am
six years outside your age range!) depending on date and
time?
Rob
Hi Robert,
That’s absolutely no issue at all, we'd be delighted to
have you join us. The age range is simply a general guide
for our core membership, but we always welcome authors
themselves, regardless of age.
We’re currently proposing Tuesday, 17 March · 7:00 PM to
10:00 PM GMT, hosted at The Thirsty Bear (62 Stamford
Street, London, SE1 9LX). Please let me know if this works
for you, and we can confirm everything formally.
In preparation for featuring Leveraged Trading,
we would also love to hear more about your journey with
the book. Specifically, what initially inspired you to
write
Leveraged Trading, and at what point did you feel
it truly needed to exist?
We’re particularly interested in which of the themes,
risk philosophies, or mental frameworks within the book
you believe are most urgent or relevant for readers to
reflect on today, especially in a fast-moving,
high-pressure financial world where decisions are often
made under significant emotional and economic strain.
Finally, we would value your thoughts on what you
ultimately hope stays with readers after they finish
Leveraged Trading whether that’s a shift in how
they assess risk, make financial decisions, approach
ambition, or manage discipline and mindset in uncertain
markets.
Warmly,
Ben Jarvis
Organizer at Classics Book club London age 20-45
Yes, the AI is strong in this one. And he almost certainly hasn't read the book. Never mind, I have been on plenty of 'professional podcasts' where that is also the case.
Hi Ben,
Unfortunately the 17th March doesn't work for me
It looks like from your page you meet on Tuesdays, about once a
month? I can do 24th March, 31st March, 7, 14, 21, April,
5,12,19,26 May
Do any of those work?
Rob
Hi Robert,
Wonderful we’re looking forward to hosting you on Tuesday, 21st March · 7:00 PM to 10:00 PM GMT at The Thirsty Bear.
To
ensure the success and overall presentation quality of the discussion
around Leveraged Trading, we would require two key visual materials:
An
event banner (digital format) that visually presents the book, your
name, and the event details. This will be used across our event page and
in-room display.
A
60-second book teaser a short visual piece that introduces Leveraged
Trading in a compelling way. This isn’t meant to be commercial
advertising, but rather an atmospheric, professional visual that sets
the intellectual tone before we move into discussion.
The
teaser would ideally highlight the core themes of disciplined risk
management, leverage, and decision-making under pressure visually
reinforcing the mindset and frameworks explored in the book.
Warmly,Ben Jarvis
Yes, he definitely hasn't read any of my books.
I’m not actually sure what an event banner (digital format) is.
But I can do a singe page .pdf with a picture of me, and my book,
and the date and time. Is that what you want?
Is a ‘short visual piece’ a video? If so, I don’t have the
ability, budget or inclination to create a ‘professional visual’.
I also don’t really have any idea how to ‘set an intellectual
tone’, nor am I sure what one is. There are no ‘mindsets’ or
‘frameworks’ in the book. In fact I just did a text search and the
word mindset doesn’t appear in the book at all. The word framework
appears only once, in the phrase ‘regulatory framework‘.
If you still want me to come, then let me know and I will prepare
the ‘event banner’, but sorry no video.
Thanks
Rob
Hi Rob,
Thank you for your thoughtful reply, I really appreciate the clarity.
Yes,
a single-page PDF with your photo, the Leveraged Trading cover, and the
confirmed date and time would work perfectly as the event banner. That
would be absolutely fine. Regarding the 60-second visual piece I
completely understand your position. It is indeed a short video, and I
appreciate that creating something professional may not be within your
current scope or interest.
That
said, the narrative prelude is an important part of how we structure
our evenings. It serves as the opening piece on stage essentially the
material that frames the discussion before we move into live dialogue.
It’s less about marketing language or abstract “mindsets,” and more
about visually introducing the world of the book the realities of
leverage, risk, decision-making under uncertainty, and the professional
discipline required in trading so the audience is properly situated
before we begin.
Since
you mentioned budget and logistics constraints, one option entirely
without obligation would be to connect you with our production
specialist. They work specifically with authors who don’t already have
visual material and can create a concise, polished narrative prelude
aligned with the tone of the event. You wouldn’t be committing to
anything by speaking with them; it would simply be an exploratory
conversation to see if it’s something you’d like to proceed with.
If you’re open to that introduction, I’d be happy to make the connection.
Looking forward to your thoughts.
Warmly,Ben Jarvis
Good to know he appreciates the clarity. It annoys me when people don't.
Well, this is certainly sounding like a very professional event, there is an event banner, a video, a stage and a structured timetable. Must be a big private room in this pub. Secondly, this offer to connect me with a specialist... okay well it certainly is starting to smell a bit scammy. But I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt.
OK I will send you the banner. But there will be no video: I have
no interest in speaking to a production specialist but thank you
for the offer.
Can you confirm the date? You put Tuesday 21st March. Did you
mean 31st March?
Rob
Yes, that is correct.
All went quiet, but when I checked their website a few days ago it was showing this:
Bit weird, I am definitely not Yuri Olesha who apparently died 66 years ago. Let me check:
Just confirming I will see you Tuesday 7pm in the Thirsty Bear.
Rob
Yes, I’m looking forward to it. I also wanted to let you know that we’ve
introduced a small participation fee. This supports a new feature where
our readers will share their thoughts and reviews of the book on Amazon
and Goodreads after the session.
If you’re still interested, I’d be happy to walk you through how the participation process works.
Warmly,Ben Jarvis
Organizer at Classics Book club London age 20-45
I assumed the participation fee was for the attendees, but on reflection this probably another attempt to get money out of me.
By now I was confused, but I was thinking that maybe each evening is a double bill where they talk about some dead Russian dude for a bit, and then bring in a live British guy to liven things up.
Now for reasons of narrative exposition, I'm actually going to jump forward in time to later that night, after I had been to the Thirsty Bear (that's the pub, remember). And on the tube on the way home I did a little more digging (which yes, I should have done in advance), and boy oh boy, what did I find but a blog piece about an author being contacted by potential scam artists:
It's worth reading the whole article, but imagine how I felt when I read this part:
My name is Ben Jarvis, and I organize the Classics Book Club, where each month we spotlight books that spark meaningful conversation and connect readers to timeless stories.
Your novel, The Journey Begins (Tales of the Sea), with its rich historical detail, compelling family voices, and the sweeping backdrop of America on the brink of Civil War, perfectly captures the type of narrative our members love to explore. The blend of seafaring adventure, personal letters, and social upheaval offers countless themes for discussion.
Would you be interested in featuring The Journey Begins in our club? Our upcoming spotlight is scheduled for September 20, and I’d be delighted to reserve your feature spot."
And here is the punch line of the post:
There it is. The pitch. I concluded my little research project with a promise to reveal “Ben” and his so-called book club as a scam. It was worth $135 to share it with you.
And I also found this:
So now you are probably thinking you know what happened last night. I went to the pub (which Google confirms exists), but there was no Ben Jarvis, no bookclub, no stage, no event banner and no framing of discussions before moving into live dialogue. Just an AI bot on the end of an email trying to scam authors around the world into sending them money for promotational videos, participation costs, and who knows what other tricks. A bot which thinks the 21st March 2026 is a Tuesday, presumably because of it's training data.
The truth is much stranger. There was a pub. There was an upper floor, but not a private room, just a long trestle table. And on that table were sitting... the Classics London Book club age 20-45. Actual people. Not AI generated. Mostly men, with beards, but a couple of women without them. And they were talking about.... Yuri Olesha. And his book. Which apparently is very good (I haven't read it). That was all I got in terms of live dialogue or discussion framing. Mostly I sat quietly and did some research on portfolio optimisation.
But there was no stage, no private room, no event banner... and certainly no Ben Jarvis. But the table in that pub had a 'reserved' sign on it. And the name on that reservation? You already know what it is. It was "Ben Jarvis". And when I arrived and asked, confused, which one of the people on the table was Ben Jarvis I got told (quite sharply I thought) "Oh, he isn't here yet". But I waited for an hour. And he didn't arrive. Though I emailed him numerous times. So I finished my pint, went home, and then on the Tube did my googling. You know the rest.
So my question is this, does Ben Jarvis exist? Is there a real Ben Jarvis, an innocent victim of this, who is being impersonated by some AI scammer; and who just happened to be (very) late to last nights meeting?
Or this much more sinister? Is the 20-45 year old London book club just a front? The organisers invented this "Ben Jarvis" person, and go through the motions of talking about dead Russian authors once a month just so that if anyone checks there will be evidence of the book club's existence? Meanwhile they go home every night and scam authors into sending money for copyediting or publishing. In which case, they made a foolish error to pick on someone who can easily travel to their meetings. That would explain why they were so annoyed when I asked where Ben was.
Or is it even darker? Are the entire club in on this scam? When I turned up, was it like the scene in the Truman show where he unexpectedly arrives and everyone has to suddenly start playing their part? Every month a bunch of out of work actors have to go to a pub and be ready to talk about E.M. Forster or Tolstoy just in case an author turns up. They don't know why, but the organisers have Kompromat on them so they do what they are told.
So if anyone from the 20-45 London book club is reading this, and especially if you are the real Ben Jarvis please feel free to get in touch with me so I can set the record straight.
Update #1:
A comment I made on the club discussion board pointing out that the club was being used to front a scam and linking to this article was deleted (and I was thrown out of the online meetup group). This is very suspicous! If they were actually the victims of the scam, why did they do this?
An update on the book club meetup page:
I have messaged Ben Jarvis via the meetup system and I am waiting for a response (I assume this will be from the real Ben Jarvis unless things are very dark).
Update #3 More emails from "Ben Jarvis":
Hello Robert, I'm very sorry for late response, I wasn't on sit (sic, means "site") yesterday but I'm sure my fellow organizer are there (sic, means "was there"), and I'm sure your novel wasn't featured
Warmly,
Ben Jarvis
Organizer at Classics Book club London age 20-45
I think he has run out of AI tokens. Still, let's have some fun.
Hi Ben
There were people there, and as you say my book (not a novel)
wasn't featured, so why did you ask me to come last night?
Rob
I mentioned earlier, before you attended the event last night, that
a participation fee applies for featuring due to certain conditions,
but I didn’t get a response from you.
Hi Ben
Oh I didn't understand that I would have to pay the participation
fee I assumed it would be the book club members.
Can I be featured at next months talk?
thanks
Rob
Yes, of course you can. Our next event is coming up on April 21st, so please let me know if you’ll be available.
Once
your participation fee has been paid, we’ll set everything up on our
end. We feature many authors each month, so registering early helps us
prepare properly and secure your spot for the event.
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
Warmly,Ben Jarvis
Hi Ben
Just a few questions. How much is the participation fee? How should I pay it? And why didn't you mention this when you first got in touch?
Also you say "You feature many authors each month" but there were not multiple authors featured last night, just discussion of one book by an author who wasn't there.
Also you said there would be a digital display, and a video, and a stage; but the venue clearly didn't have any of those facilities. It wasn't even a private room. Seems a bit odd.
Rob
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