You’d Better THINK Before Clicking That Link!! – by Brian Whiddon, Managing Editor

Howdy Folks,

Brian here, filling in for Angela as we juggle roles during Ali’s maternity leave.

We received a rather distressing email from an author the other day. The email wasn’t really so different from others we receive asking about suspicious online activity. But what it implies is ominous:

“I recently received an email from Barnes & Noble telling me to update my banking information and put in the bank beneficiary address. But I don’t receive any payments directly from Barnes & Noble, they go to my publisher. Do I need to do anything?”

The first important point is, NO. you did NOT receive an email from Barnes and Noble. And it seems that this author had enough presence of mind to consider all of the facts concerning this “request from Barnes and Noble.” In fact, it’s a very good thing that he is involved enough in the process of his book publishing and promotion that he understood how the royalty payment process works.

There is an overall theme here, but it may not be what you’re thinking. The fact is that the Internet has become a no-man’s land of lies and fakery – all designed to steal away your very real money. If you don’t educate yourself and operate with a healthy dose of skepticism in everything you do regarding the Internet (emails, social media, visiting websites), there is a high probability that you will fall prey to these scams. The fakes are getting that good.

So, what’s happening in this scam is a classic case of a “phishing” operation.

A scammer (or scamming team, which is more the reality today) who has built a website that looks amazingly similar to the actual Barnes and Noble site sends thousands of emails out to unsuspecting people.

How do they know who to send those emails out to? Well, there are plenty of lists sold every day on the dark web. There are actually people who spend their time and make their money using computer coding to scour the Internet, collecting people’s information, and then selling it. These computer programs can be can be customized to seek out specific things – for instance, people whose names appear on Barnes and Noble’s database for books that are selling on their website. A little cross-referencing, and these programs can match up names with email addresses, phone numbers, physical addresses … you get the picture.

As for the rest of the operation, the whole idea behind the email sent to the author is to get him to log onto the Barnes and Noble website. Only it isn’t the actual Barnes and Noble website. It’s a fake that the scammers created. Its only job is to look real and offer the targeted victim a real-looking page on which to enter their personal information, including the bank’s name, their bank account number, and possibly a password.

All it takes is a link in that very official-looking email. We all know that most people, when offered a link they can just click on, will gladly click on it rather than going through the painstaking effort of actually typing in a website address. This is where they catch the poor schlub who doesn’t pay attention to details. That link will NOT take the victim to a sub-page of barnesandnoble.com, but rather to the scammer’s fake website.

This is but one example of this type of scam. You can see others in this article:

5 Examples of Fake Websites (and How to Spot Them)

(They even have photos so you can see how convincing these fakes can be.)

The scary thing about this type of operation is that it requires no back-and-forth correspondence. No multiple emails. No phone calls. Nothing to make a victim eventually think “something isn’t adding up.” The victim simply sees a link he can click on to solve the “problem” of needing to update his bank information.

But if we use a little reasoning, we can see the holes in the scammer’s story. For one, we’ve all lived through the experience of having some subscription or auto-pay service that suddenly stopped when we were expecting a renewal of that service. Only then might we receive some email notification that says only that our payment method was DECLINED. Never have I been contacted by one of my subscription services asking for me to “update” my payment method while that payment method is still working perfectly fine.

However, the message in this email gave the impression that this author has to “update” his bank info. so he could receive payments.

One big giveaway in this email was the simple fact of WHO is asking for the victim’s bank information. Barnes and Noble is a book retailer, just like any and every other book retailer. Yes, they are a big-name retailer. But they do the same thing as your neighborhood bookstore: they purchase books at wholesale cost, and sell them at retail. But do they purchase the books directly from authors? No.

Barnes and Noble (and every other book retailer) purchases the books they sell from a wholesale distributor, and that’s where they send the money. That distributor is under contract with thousands publishers to distribute the books published by those publishers, and they send payments to those publishers, who then send royalties to their authors.

This is the knowledge that saved this author from making a very costly mistake.

Any time you receive an email asking that you go to a company’s website with a link provided, always ignore that link. It’s easy to find the actual address for any business on Google (though even Google now has fake websites in its search algorithms that look real). While you’re at it, there’s no harm in googling something like “Barnes and Noble Customer Service Phone Number.” Contact the company directly, and inquire about the email. Never follow a link sent to you in an email, unless you specifically requested that correspondence from a reputable business. (Not someone you started talking to because they sent you a solicitation.)

Bottom line here folks: NEVER blindly trust an email sent to you out of the blue asking that you click on a live link. Additionally, always be wary of any company you find on the Internet in your search for publishing services. We created a list of 11 Ways to Know If a “Publisher” or Other Service Provider is an Overseas Scammer that shows you step by step how to investigate any website or social media ad to get a better idea of its legitimacy.

You can also listen to our WritersWeekly Podcast to learn more ways of protecting yourself from online scammers who are targeting authors and writers.

Oh, and don’t miss this!

Does YOUR Publisher Know How to Avoid This Royalty Theft Scam?

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Brian Whiddon is the Managing Editor of WritersWeekly.com and the Operations Manager at BookLocker.com. An Army vet and former police officer, Brian is the author of Blue Lives Matter: The Heart behind the Badge. He's an avid sailor, having lived and worked aboard his 36-foot sailboat, the “Floggin’ Molly” for 9 years after finding her abandoned in a boat yard and re-building her himself. Now, in northern Georgia, when not working on WritersWeekly and BookLocker, he divides his off-time between hiking, hunting, and farming.

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HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING A BOOK?

Angela is not only the publisher of WritersWeekly.com. She is President & CEO of BookLocker.com,
a self-publishing services company that has been in business since 1998. Ask her anything.

ASK ANGELA!