[2][3] Translators for some books in The Da Vinci Code series were reported by Vulture to have been "required to work in a basement with security guards clocking trips to the bathroom".
[4][2][6] In the case of The Man Who Chased His Shadow, an industry insider estimated that the number of people worldwide who knew the necessary details to know whom to impersonate and whom to approach was "only a few dozen.
"[2] The emails themselves seemed believable; one failed attempt was made on a William Morris Agency employee whose suspicions were raised only because 'her boss would never write "please" or "thank you"'.
[4][6] Speculation as to motive included talent scouts or others in the industry or in Hollywood seeking early access to anticipated releases, impatient readers wanting the book solely for their own use, or "pleasure in the act itself".
"[6] Other industry professionals were still puzzled, saying that early access to unpublished manuscripts would be of little benefit to a low-level foreign rights specialist like Bernardini.
[8] As news of the ongoing scam emails spread in the industry, many publishers increased their security measures to include even very obscure titles.
[2] Thefts or attempts were reported by representatives of Anthony Doerr, Jennifer Egan, Laila Lalami, Taffy Brodesser-Akner, Kevin Kwan, Joshua Ferris, Eka Kurniawan, Sally Rooney, Margaret Atwood, Hanna Bervoets,[9] Ethan Hawke, Ian McEwan, Bong Joon Ho, Michael J.
[2] The FBI arrested Filippo Bemardini, a 29-year-old American citizen of Italian descent, upon landing at John F. Kennedy International Airport on January 5, 2022.
"[5] Prosecutors with the US Department of Justice alleged that Bernardini had registered "more than 160" domain names similar to those used by legitimate publishers, literary agents, talent scouts, and other industry professionals in order to send emails from those domain names impersonating editors, agents, scouts, and other industry insiders in order to convince authors to send pre-publication manuscripts to him.