For some years now, people working in science have been confronted with a new phenomenon: The annoyance caused by (exclusively English-language) e-mails in which the recipients are asked – usually after a friendly greeting (Tab. 1) – to publish an article in a journal mentioned in the mail (Tab. 2). The titles of these journals are largely unknown in the dental/medical world. Sometimes they resemble those of renowned specialist journals. In order to demonstrate the extent to which this practice has taken on, the e-mails of this kind received by the first author at his address between 1 and 31 January 2020 were stored and analyzed.