Sorry but my suspension of disbelief got shattered here. 45 years of experience and you couldn't figure out that something trying to install to your terminal is probably malware because the guy sounded polite? My goodness.
Politeness is a part of the approach, but it's not the whole game. The author wanted to be interviewed. It's flattering! Journalists asking you about things you've done because they think your work is interesting feels good.
He wanted it enough that it blinded him to every (blatant and obvious) sign that this was a scam.