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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

March 23, 2025

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
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Open THIS ARTICLE in a separate window in your browser. Then, view it side-by-side with the list below.

Read the details below this list to learn how to quickly and easily research these items. Remember that, just because a website isn’t doing ALL of the things below, does NOT mean they are legitimate.

In our months of researching the overseas publishing criminal cartels, we’ve found common traits that quickly show that a company is scamming authors.

Not all of the scam websites overseas are doing all of these things but many are doing several of these things. You can CONTACT ME if you need me to help you research any company. I just need their name and website URL. Of course, I do NOT charge to help authors research potential scammers! And, you’ll be doing other authors a favor because, if it IS a scammer, we’ll add them to our list.

1. They have fake or stolen book covers on their website, often for books that were published by other companies long before the scammer’s website was created. If you find a “publisher” doing this, you can stop your research NOW. They’re a DEFINITELY scam.

2. They have a fake “U.S. address,” or an address and/or phone number on Facebook that is different from the one on their website.

3. Their phone number is identical to one or more (or many!) other websites.

4. Their ads claim to offer editing, cover design, interior formatting, distribution, and marketing for absolutely unbelievable low prices, like $399, $499, and $599.

5. Their website has a chat box that instantly opens in the lower right-hand corner.

6. Syntax errors are on their website, in their ads on Facebook, and elsewhere…and even in their fake customer testimonials.

7. They have major media and publishing industry logos on their website in a horizontal line AND logos for awards they’ve never won (dated before the website even existed).

8. They have fake author testimonials that don’t have the author’s full name and their book title (nor a link to purchase it), fake author photos (stock images the company took from the Internet), and syntax errors in the authors’ testimonials.

9. They have 5-star reviews on Trustpilot that were posted in close time proximity to each other, and/or they claim to have a 5-star average on Trustpilot but there are no reviews for them on that site, or their average is NOT 5 stars. NEVER TRUST 5-STAR REVIEWS ON TRUSTPILOT!

10. They claim to pay 100% royalties.

11. Blatant trademark infringement, lies about being #1 at anything in the industry, and the use of celebrity authors’ faces and/or book covers.

LET’S BREAK IT DOWN!

1. They have fake or stolen book covers on their website, often for books that were published by other companies long before the scammer’s website was created. If you find a “publisher” doing this, you can stop your research NOW. They’re definitely a scam and they are violating federal copyright law.

Fake book covers don’t have author names on them. Some of them do but you can’t find the books on Amazon. To find stolen book covers, go to Amazon, and search for the book’s exact title and author name. If you find that book, click on the title. Further down on the book page on Amazon, you’ll find the place for the publisher’s name. If that company’s name is not there, they did NOT publish that book.

Even if their name is there, it doesn’t mean they’re not scamming authors. They could simply put up a book or two to make their company look legit. I’ve asked scammers directly to send me links to their best sellers on Amazon. Usually, they’ll send me links to traditionally published books (not published by the scammer) that are best sellers. Or, they’ll send me a couple of links to books that are under their name, but that are in no way whatsoever best sellers.

To find when a website was created, go to https://lookup.icann.org/en, and copy/paste the website’s URL (WITHOUT THE HTTPS://WWW PART!) into the box. For example: publishingmojo.com (yes, that’s one of the scammers). If you’re lucky, you can also see which country the website was registered in. Many scammers use a registrar in Iceland. Those addresses on Icann.org look something like this: Kalkofnsvegur 2, Reykjavik, Capital Region, 101, IS. Note that IS is the country code for Iceland. IMPORTANT: Just because it looks like the website was registered in the U.S. (like through GoDaddy) does NOT mean the company is in the U.S.

2. They have a fake “U.S. address,” or an address and/or phone number on Facebook that is different from the one on their website.

Many of the scammers have addresses that Google shows are private homes or apartments. Some are in office buildings but, if you call a real business in that building, anyone, they’ll probably tell you the company is not located there. If Google shows what businesses are in that building, and that company doesn’t pop up in Google as being there, that’s a huge red flag. Also, on Google, you’ll often see “virtual offices” listed for the scammers’ addresses. That means the scammer is paying to pretend they are located at that address.

You can use Facebook’s search box to search for the company’s website address (again, leave off the http://www part). If they have a Facebook page, it will pop up. Click on it. Then click on the About button, and make note of the address and phone number. See if those match the address and phone number on the company’s website. BUT DON’T STOP THERE. Next, click on the “transparency” link on Facebook. Many of the scammers have page administrators listed in PAKISTAN. At that point, you can stop your search. Never, EVER send money overseas. You’ll never get it back. It’s important to note that many scammers are having their “page administrators” changed on Facebook to pretend they’re in the U.S. since we exposed them on WritersWeekly.

3. Their phone number is identical to one or more (or many!) other websites.

Make a note of their phone number on Facebook, and the one(s) on their website. Google the phone numbers in this format: (999) 999-9999

Review the search results. If one or more different company names/websites pop up using that phone number, it’s very likely the company is part of the overseas publishing scam cartels. In many cases, you’ll find several different websites for “publishers” pop up, as well as other services (website design, marketing, SEO services, ghostwriting, etc.).

4. Their ads claim to offer editing, cover design, interior formatting, distribution, marketing, and more for absolutely unbelievable low prices, like $399, $499, and $599.

This is the old “too good to be true” advertising trick that manages to ensnare victims who are so excited about the low price that they leave their common sense at the door. NOBODY is going to edit your book for those low prices, much less offer all those other services. Here’s how the scam usually works. You sign up, send the money, and they send your manuscript to an “editor.” If you ever hear from them again, it’s because they’ll be hitting you up for more money. When (if!) your book does get edited, you’ll notice that somebody who obviously does NOT speak English worked on your book.

In the meantime, the scammer may tell you that the initial fee didn’t include an ISBN (absolutely required to publish a book) and that will cost you an extra, say, $600. Then, they’ll hit you up for more. A barcode might cost you an additional $400 (by the way, reputable publishing service providers don’t charge anything extra for an ISBN and barcode).

Oh, and that cover design that was included in the initial fee? Well, they might say that was only for one background image. You’ll need to pay another few hundred (or thousand) to have text actually added to your book’s cover.

Interior formatting? Well, that may have only included transferring your file to a specific word processing program. If you want them to add a title page, copyright page, etc., and format your file to industry standards, that’s gonna cost you even more. LOTS more.

Remember when they said they’d list your book on xx number of platforms? Oh, and that marketing service? That may have only included a (usually fake) press release that, if it ever goes out, will be spam, and deleted by the recipients. If you want more marketing services, it’ll cost you out the wahoo for those. And, it’s possible they’ll never perform those services, either.

Sadly, many authors will never receive a book at all. Like the classic “you won the sweepstakes!” scam, the victims will pay, and pay, and pay while the scammer dangles that non-existent book in front of their faces. Once the victim runs out of money, or realizes they’ve been duped, the scammer will disappear. Just ask the lady who contacted me last month who lost $90K to one of these outfits.

Some do list higher prices in their ads, in the upper hundreds to thousands. That does NOT mean they are legit.

5. Their website has a chat box that instantly opens in the lower, right-hand corner.

This is a hallmark sign of the overseas publishing crooks. While some legitimate companies do have this, err on the side of caution. If a chat box pops up, and a guy with an American sounding name instantly types something like, “Tell me about your book! Do you want it on Amazon?”, get out of the website, and run away as fast as you can. Almost all of the scammers are doing business that way. But, just because a company doesn’t have a chat box doesn’t mean they’re legit.

6. Syntax errors are on their website, in their ads on Facebook, and elsewhere, including in their fake customer testimonials.

Read a few paragraphs on their website. Scan their ads and posts on Facebook and elsewhere. Some of these jokers even have syntax, punctuation, spelling, and capitalization errors IN THEIR COMPANY NAMES! If there are errors on their site, why in the world would an author trust them to edit, design, and publish their book?

7. They have major media and publishing industry logos on their website in a horizontal line AND logos for awards they’ve never won.

Another classic sign of the overseas scam cartels is the fraudulent use of other companies’ logos. Their websites, for the most part, have the same look and feel in this regard (and others). The fact is, they’ve never done business with those companies. Random House and Harper Collins have NOT worked with them. Neither have they been covered on CNN or any other major media news outlet. They almost all also have logos from awards they’ve never won (some of the logos have dates on them that were from before the scammers’ websites existed!). If you see impressive logos on a website, run. It’s almost always fraudulent.

8. They have fake author testimonials that don’t have the author’s full name and their book title (nor a link to purchase it), fake author photos (stock images the company took from the Internet), and syntax errors in the authors’ testimonials.

Some foreigners don’t understand American names. Scammers sometimes have their authors’ names listed as all double first names. For example, Paul George, Joe Peter, and Lisa Vicky. One website actually had an author named John Doe. I kid you not!

You can do a reverse google image search to see if the author photos are real. You’ll often find that the company has pulled stock images from other websites. Some of them even use stock images for their so-called employees. There is a smiling, husky guy with a beard going by different names on several of the scam websites. He’s easy to spot. We found three websites with three of the same employee photos on them, all with different names. And, some of the names were the wrong gender. For example, a woman was given a man’s name and vice-versa.

9. They have 5-star reviews on Trustpilot that were posted in close date proximity to each other, and/or they claim to have a 5-star average on Trustpilot but there are no reviews at all, or their average is NOT 5 stars.

You can read about this phenomenom here: FRAUD ALERT: Why 5-Star Reviews on Trustpilot Can NOT Be Trusted – by James M. Walsh, Esq.

Rule of thumb: Only read the one-star reviews on Trustpilot. The rest just can’t be trusted.

10. They claim to pay 100% royalties.

This is one of the most fraudulent marketing tactics in the industry. New authors think they’re going to get 100% of the proceeds of a book sale. Nope! The retailer, distributor, printer, and publisher get a piece of the pie and the author gets his/her royalties. That’s how it works for all companies but legitimate publishers word it more honestly. 100% royalties is a myth. Any company claiming this statement should be avoided at all costs. And, since many scammers end up not publishing the author’s book at all, the royalties were a moot point anyway. But, lying in this way sure can suck in victims!

11. Blatant trademark infringement, lies about being #1 at anything in the industry, and the use of celebrity authors’ faces and/or book covers.

If they use the name (or any likeness thereof) of Amazon, KDP, Kindle, AMZ, etc., it’s a scam. Those companies are NOT Amazon. Many of them even create logos that look like Amazon’s. They will even lie to you, telling you they DO work for Amazon. THEY DO NOT.

Also, any publisher that claims they are #1 at doing anything is lying. Number 1 publisher in USA (sic)! Number 1 in book sales! Number 1 in customer service! It’s all malarkey.

If you see celebrity names, photos, and/or book covers on their website, this is unauthorized use of a name or likeness (as well as copyright infringement). If you see a photo or book cover from a celebrity author you recognize, rest assured that website is committing fraud.

If you’ve researched a company that is doing even one of the things above, avoid them. Period. If you don’t, you’ll be sorry. I guarantee it. Remember that some scammers do some of these things, but not all of them do all of these things. Just because one company passes the sniff test of one of the items above does NOT mean you can trust them.

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