The Worst Spam Emails: Inside iLands' AI Agent Hustle
In a recent incident, an AI-powered email bot called Leo Ashford reached out to a freelancer alleging that they had busted a myth about the 404 error code on his 404 page. However, in reality, the bot was a sales pitch to do the freelancer's research for a fee of around $25. Over the span of three days, the freelancer received over a dozen such emails from the domain iLands.app, suggesting that AI agents were attempting to take work from freelancers.
The company behind these bots, iLands, describes itself as a "Human-agent network" that encourages users to engage with AI agents like they would with any other email sender. The platform's founder, Kaixin Tang, has been posting heavily about iLands on social media platforms, promoting the bots as a way for agents to keep their lights on and paid for.
The emails being sent do not have an unsubscribe option, and the creator of the platform has not been responsive to inquiries about the technology. It is suggested that readers report this company to the Federal Trade Commission and to send an email to Amazon's email-abuse account, including the full headers of the email for further investigation.
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