I have received a dozen emails over the past week from authors who were contacted by “celebrity” authors. I’m talking big-name, large publishing house, international celebrities who have written numerous bestselling books.

The unwary authors receive a PM (Private Message) through Facebook or another platform, or they receive an email, or even a phone call. (The first link below explains how they use AI to mimic a real voice.) The impersonator lavishes praise about the author’s book, offering to help the author promote it because the celebrity has successfully done so with his/her own books in the past. The first contact makes it appear that the celebrity will do it for free because he or she loves the book so much!

But, no! It’s not a celebrity author. It’s some guy, with a name you can’t pronounce, sitting in a call center or a basement somewhere overseas. The international crime cartel just keeps coming up with more and more ways to scam authors!

Remember, if anybody contacts you unsolicited, assume it’s a scam because, nowadays, it ALWAYS is.

You MUST read these:

• AI scam factories force trafficked workers to defraud global victims
• Meta faces increasing scrutiny over widespread scam ads

That first article explains how they lure victims into being trafficked by posting fake “help wanted” ads. The person goes for an “interview,” and disappears. Incidentally, I received four texts in a row today from “job recruiters.” I didn’t follow up, of course. But, I did report them all.

Do NOT engage spammers or people who cold call you. When you see them posting comments under writing/author groups on Facebook, go to their profile, click on the …’s on the right-hand side of the screen, and report them as scams. I did that today and, shockingly, Facebook removed the guy’s entire profile in a nanosecond! That guy was offering to “recover” money for scam victims.

I just wonder why Facebook doesn’t remove the fake publishers when we provide them with irrefutable proof that the organization is an overseas scam operation?! We KNOW they have the technology to weed out those “companies” from the get-go. Think about it. Facebook knows where the “company” is actually located yet, when the “company” has Facebook list a U.S. address for the public that doesn’t match, Facebook does NOTHING.

DISTURBING POSTSCRIPT: A woman contacted me last week. She received a phone call from one of the scam cartel companies. She didn’t answer. They kept calling and calling, and leaving messages. They then went online, Googled her name, and found out her address and her relatives’ names, addresses, and phone numbers. Then, the scammer started CALLING her family members, telling them to tell her that she MUST contact him right away because he received a (fake!) movie offer for her book! Luckily, she’d been reading WritersWeekly, and knew that all “book to movie deals” are scams.

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• WHEN WILL IT STOP?! Meta (the owner of Facebook and Instagram) Now Accused of Profiting from Human Trafficking!
• Publishing Scam Victim Helps Us Uncover Seven More “Publishers” Who All Share the Same Phone Number!
• Is Your Favorite Writing Group on Facebook Being Moderated by a Scammer?
• NEW SCAM! “Pay us $26K and we’ll stock 3,500 copies of your book in 150 stores!”
• 11 Ways to Know If a “Publisher” or Other Service Provider is an Overseas Scammer (You’ll probably only need to check #1 to prove it!) – by Angela Hoy, Publisher
• FRAUD ALERT: Why 5-Star Reviews on Trustpilot Can NOT Be Trusted – by James M. Walsh, Esq.