Scam Site AO3.life Poses as Audiobook Seller Amid AO3 Outage
A fraudulent website is exploiting the Archive of Our Own outage by offering to sell fanfiction audiobooks and siphoning authors’ work.
The recent, unexplained outage of the fan‑fiction hub Archive of Our Own (AO3) has spawned a dubious copycat site, AO3.life, which promises readers “all their favorite fanfictions” and offers authors a cut of alleged audiobook sales.
According to user reports, AO3.life appears to have harvested a cached snapshot of the original platform, displaying works that have since been deleted or set to private on the legitimate site.
The scam’s centerpiece is a claim that it will sell these stories as audiobooks, splitting proceeds “91% to the author, 9% to ao3.life.” To claim payment—or to have their works removed—the site instructs authors to send an email from the address linked to their AO3 profile.
Community members quickly flagged the operation as a phishing and doxxing attempt. The Organization for Transformative Works (OTW), the nonprofit that runs AO3, confirmed awareness of the scheme and said it is taking steps to have the site taken down, though legal processes move slower than online discourse.
OTW’s response, posted on the AO3 subreddit, urged patience: “We are aware and are taking action, but please be patient because the legal system is much slower than online life.”
Users are reminded that the outage’s cause remains unknown, and that no mass‑reporting campaign will result in legitimate works being removed.
For the love of the omegaverse, do not engage with AO3.life.
