Scam Book Marketers Are Stealing Writers' Identities
A Literal Literary Loser Digs Deeper
The first time I was conned by a book scammer - ah, remember those long ago, halcyon days of February 2023? - I thought I was doing my due diligence when I asked the persistent salesperson who Instant Messaged me on Instagram to send me the names and contact info of happy customers.
Since most such thieves refuse, I thought I was making progress when they urged me to contact @martha_teichner and @susannaclarke_, both best-selling authors who they claimed had gotten not just sales, but glowing write ups in The New York Times, from said thieves.
I reached out to both, and was assured the claims of fame and fortune were true. Of course, I then reached out to the author of the NYT profile and was told she’d never heard of them. (You can read our entire exchange, here and here.)
At the time, innocent, naive me thought the authors quoted were part of the scam. That they might, in fact, be the ones running it.
But it’s worse than that. These authors are innocent. Entire fake accounts are being created by scammers solely for the purpose of stealing desperate, aspiring writers’ money. Here is an exchange with another such criminal calling herself Jessica Snow, and plying her trade on Facebook.
Jessica Snow: Hello. Are you still interested in promoting your book? I know we have trust issues. (Ed note: I sent her links to my multiple scam posts and asked her to prove how she was different. Her initial response was to be offended and cut off communication in a huff. Guess she got over it.) I just helped an author recently with his books and he made a huge sales. I can give you his profile like to discuss with him
Me: What was the name of the book which made huge sales?
JS: Echoes Fade
Me: This it? https://www.amazon.com/Echoes-Fade-David-Mystery-Thriller-ebook/dp/B0C6NV99XV
Echoes Fade (David Wolf Mystery Thriller Series Book 17)
JS: Yes
Me: How many books would you say he sold?
JS: Up to 4K
Me: OK, I'll reach out to him and ask how it went. Will let you know. Were all the sales on Amazon or another platform?
JS: https://web.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61550610189828
It was on amazon
Me: OK, I'll reach out to him.
JS: Ok
Me: His FB page has no friends or posts, though. That's weird. And he says on FB his book just came out, but Amazon says it came out over two months ago. Weird.
JS: He told me he just created it
Me: Well, I'll FB message him. Will let you know what he says.
JS: Ok
Me: Is this the same guy? https://www.facebook.com/authorjeffcarson/
JS: Yes
JS: Cool, thanks. Reached out to him. Will let you know what he says. (Ed. note: The second FB page, unlike the first, has 1.5K followers, multiple posts, and the correct release date for his most recent book. It also had an email to contact the author at. So I did.)
JS: ok
(The next day, after hearing from Jeff, who thanked me for the head’s up about the fake page.)
Me: Hi, Jessica, reached out to Jeff. He says he's never heard of you, can you explain
JS: That's means the account that messaged me was a scam account
Me: Yup. Did you do all that work for a scam account? But I guess if they paid you, it's all good. Except the real author benefited from it. Why would anybody do something like that?
JS: I don't know either.
***
And that’s where we left it. Folks, I thought I was doing my due diligence the first time, when I asked for happy customer testimonials and contact info. It, honestly, never crossed my mind that somebody would go to the trouble of not only dummying up fake accounts for real authors, but corresponding from them with potential suckers. These criminals are putting more and more effort into stealing your money. Don’t fall for it! What they promise in sales is, quite simply, impossible. Which means it’s not true. Fight back, report them, and share stories like mine with others.
Let’s be careful out there, and help our fellow writers do the same.