I get tired hearing about all the scammers trying to twist money out of writers, however this latest scam involving writers who are self-publishers, is scarier than most. Angela Hoy was contacted by a writer who suspected she was being scammed, and of course she was. Angela Hoy says:
Here's the most disturbing part. He said, "My shipper will come and pick them up from your location."Beware, dear writer. The scammers are everywhere.Obviously, if someone is ordering something directly from an author, they would assume they'd be picking up the books from the author's home. The author was justified in seeing all these red flags and contacting me. Reading this part made me sick. I suspected the author may have been the target of something possibly more sinister than a simple book-buying scam.
Please don't ever, ever, EVER invite someone you don't know to your home, even if they are promising to buy 100 copies of your book! To see why, just look at the news headlines!
On a brighter note, one scammer got precisely what she deserved: six years. A Writer's Life reports in Scammer Sent to Slammer:
Writers' Beware is reporting that Martha Ivery, the vanity press scammer and fake literary agent, was sentenced today to nearly six years in Federal prison for bilking aspiring writers out of hundreds of thousands of dollars with her many swindles under various aliases (Kelly O'Donnell Literary Agency, Craig Roussan, PressTige Publishing, New Millenium Publishing House, etc.).Great news. Martha Ivery has been scamming writers for years.
If YOU suspect a scam, Google the suspect! Just enter their name into the Google search query box, and see what the results are. These days, you can check up on anyone, just using Google.
My gift to you: Holiday Season Writer's Gift Pack - Santa's sleigh is packed with gifts for you, dear writer. I wish you and yours a joyous holiday, and your best writing year ever in 2007.
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