Scams Targeting Authors

~ njschrock

The Problem

Since the publication of Morning of a Crescent Moon in January, I’ve been inundated by scam offers. I’m hoping if I document some of what I’ve experienced, maybe it will help other writers avoid these scams. They were new to me. My first novel, Incense Rising, was published in 2018, and I didn’t see anything like what I’m experiencing now. AI has greatly facilitated these bad actors’ scams.

The Characteristics

I began receiving emails outlining opportunities. At first, some of these “opportunities” sounded really interesting, but as I dug into their validity, I realized they’re scams. Here are some of the characteristics of the scam offers I’ve been getting.

  • A book club would like to feature my book. They don’t say this right away, but eventually they need to defray the cost of running the club, so I need to make a donation. They frequently have a Meetup page, but there’s not much on it.
  • An editor at a well-known publisher is impressed with my book and wants to know if I have an agent. If I say I don’t, then they recommend one. The email address may be very close to that of the publisher or the agent, but it is not exact. The last one I received appeared to be from Penguin Random House, except for a hyphen in pen-quin. The Penguin Random House people confirmed the email was fraudulent. See part of their letter to me, below.
  • A radio podcaster would like to interview me, but when I look up his podcasts, I don’t see that he has interviewed other authors, and his email is from a Gmail account. I asked that he verify who he was and to send me links to his other podcasts where he interviewed authors. I received a nice reply saying he “completely understands” my concern (a phrase frequently used in scam emails). He said other nice things but did not provide links to his other author interviews.
  • Most of the scams are coming from Gmail, Yahoo, or similar accounts, but not all. As noted above, some email addresses come close to looking authentic.
  • Most of the names of the “people” contacting me have a common, English-sounding name: Bennett, Stone, Martin…..
  • The scammers praise my novel, say how much they enjoyed it, and frequently tell me at some length what my book is about. I suppose they want to convince me they read it, but I know what it’s about. I wrote it! The summary has to be generated by AI based on my reviews. They claim my novel needs more visibility, and they can help me with that for a fee.

How to Combat the Fraud

Ignoring these suspected scam emails doesn’t work well because they then send me a second email, asking if the first one was lost. I say I’m not interested, and then they may reply asking why, at which point I ignore it. I’m not going to help them make their scam more credible, and I have a marketing person associated with my publisher helping me. I could identify them as spam, but there is a chance some may be from real people with honest intentions.

Here is part of a letter I received from Penguin Random House when I asked for verification of a scam email. It contains links to many useful resources for writers who want to become more aware of scams.

“We understand that this is an upsetting situation. Unfortunately,  we often hear from individuals, mostly self-published authors, who have been targeted by professional criminals impersonating or purporting to be literary agents, editors, and PRH employees. In addition to the information on this PRH combatting fraud page, here are some resources you might be interested in:

I hope some of my fellow authors find this information useful. I wasn’t prepared or forewarned before my novel was published in January.  I’m a lot smarter about scams now.

N. J. Schrock

Author email: contact@njschrock.com

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