“A Stranger is Offering Me a Loan to Finance My Book Promotion Expenses. Is This a Scam?”

Q –

Hi Angela,

I was working with a company that turned out to be a scam publisher. I think they shared my phone number with other scammers. Recently, I was contacted by phone by a woman offering to find investors to finance my book promotion expenses. I know it’s a scam, but have you seen this type of con before?

A –

I sure have! The financing / loan / investment scammers are not only targeting authors. They’re targeting EVERYBODY! (See an example further below.)

First, when scam victims start getting phone calls from “different” people and companies, in most cases, those people are the original scam company, using different names, email addresses, and even multiple different websites. (Read about “the illusion of choice” and “house of brands” RIGHT HERE.)

I receive countless emails every single day from foreign scammers offering my companies loans, financing, investors…you name it. One of our competitors who I recently spoke to is also getting similar offers every single day. First, I don’t need any of that (but some desperate people do!). Second, I’m more adept at recognizing scam activities than folks who don’t do what I do for a living.

Here’s how the loan / financing / investment / grant scam works:

1. They reach out to you unsolicited either by email, through social media, your website, or by phone/text.

2. They say you’re pre-qualified to receive a LOT of money in the form of a loan/grant/financing, etc. (I was offered $450K just now via email. They emailed me four times!)

3. They offer guaranteed approval. But, of course, they still need ALL of your personal information, including your social security number. Some people have lost their entire life savings from this type of identity theft scam.

4. They create a false sense of urgency. They want you to sign on RIGHT NOW (“the rate is about to get higher!!”), before you have a chance to think about it, and research them.

5. Before the loan can be finalized, a hiccup occurs. You have to pay them a processing fee (that “fee” goes by many names). Of course, you’ll never get that money back…NOR the loan!

6. In some cases, they convince (often elderly) victims that they need the login information for their bank account. You can see where this is going, right? They claim they need that so they can wire the lone money to the victim. You do NOT need someone’s banking login information to wire them money! Some of con artists send the victim a fake check. The victim deposits it. The scammer then immediately says the check was for too much money, and they insist that the victim wire the difference back to them. In the end, the original check bounces, so the victim is out the money they wired.

7. If they’ve obtained the victim’s social security number, other details, and banking information, they then sell that to other scammers on the dark web.

I know of no legitimate firm that offers to finance an author’s book promotion activities (or any book publishing activities at all).

Geno Scala, the Former Director/Official of Academy Awards Show, Founder of The Script Mentor Screenwriting Program, and Creator of The 20-Day Screenplay Video Series recently wrote:

“I lost $10,000 to what I thought was a legitimate loan company. In reality, it was a ring of Chinese fraudsters operating out of India. I only learned the truth when the FBI stepped in after my bank account was compromised. When the feds tell you you’ve been scammed, it hits differently.”

The entire post is RIGHT HERE.

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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.