A disturbing trend is emerging on Facebook and elsewhere. More and more authors are publicly admitting online that they’ve been scammed to the tune of thousands of dollars by the foreign crime cartels that are pretending to be publishers (and offering other related but totally fake services).

Enter a new kind of scam! We are seeing increasing numbers of posts under those complaints where someone offers to help the victim get their money back. They usually then PM (private message) the victim to pitch their fake “services.”

The Federal Trade Commission has issued a warning about this type of “service.”  Did you know that scammers can buy lists of people who have been scammed? It includes the victims’ names, contact info., and even what type of scam they fell for. The criminals obviously think those people are more vulnerable to being scammed again. And, unfortunately, that can be the case for some personality types. One person I know was scammed by two companies, and then believed the third scam email she received was legitimate until I told her, in a very nice way, that she was about to be an idiot again.

By the way, if you are wondering about a specific publisher or service, CONTACT ME right away with the company’s name and website. I will research them quickly for you. No charge! If they are a scammer, you’ll have done me a favor because I can add them to our spreadsheet. We’re adding scammers to our article frequently but our spreadsheet has almost 1,000 scammers on it now so the going is a bit slow. We must do thorough research, and obtain several screenshots before we can add a scammer to our website. Once we do, when someone Google’s that company’s name, the list on WritersWeekly will pop up near the top of the search engine results.

Stay safe by assuming that anyone offering a refund recovery service is a scammer. You can usually see them on Facebook and elsewhere, often using a foreign name, and responding in an empathetic tone to the scam victim’s post.

We believe these folks are part of the foreign publishing scam network and that they have simply found yet another way to defraud authors – charging them for a service they’ll never perform…just like the promised publishing services that never happened!

Here are the facts:

1. If you paid using a bank transfer, you’re NEVER getting your money back no matter what the “recovery” scammer tells you. We’ve heard from several authors who were told by the scam publishers that their “credit card system was down” and that payment needed to be made through a bank transfer. NEVER, EVER pay using a bank transfer!

2. If you were able to use a credit card, you MIGHT be able to get your money back by filing a chargeback. The sooner you do that, the better.

3. If you paid through an online service like Paypal, you MAY or MAY NOT be able to get your money back. If the scammer is generating more money for Paypal than you are, whose side do you think Paypal is going to be on?

If you complain to Facebook or Instagram about the publishing scammer (or any scammer at all), don’t count on them to remove the scammers’ page(s) or ads on that platform. You’re doing the right thing by reporting them, and hoping nobody else will get scammed, but Facebook is profiting from those ads, and has zero incentive to remove them.

Do NOT, under any circumstances, do business with any company running ads on Facebook/Instagram that are offering publishing, writing, ghostwriting, web design, audiobook, SEO, or other services that claim to cater to authors. We have outlined how to spot the scammers in THIS ARTICLE. Even if it’s just a Facebook page, and they’re not running ads, chances are they’re part of the overseas scam network.

If you do spot a scammer on Facebook, please post a comment under their post, calling them out as a scammer. You just might save one or more authors from falling for the ruse. We all need to be watching out for each other right now!

Oh, and don’t forget that you can NOT trust 5-star reviews on Trustpilot!

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