Q –

Is this a scam? (I suspect it is.)

International Writers’ Chronicle
https://internationalwriterschronicle.mystrikingly.com

Thank you for your time.

– Kate

A – 

Hi Kate,

It DEFINITELY looks like a scam, so we did some digging…

They don’t even have their own domain name. They’re using mystrikingly.com, a free hosting service. We call that an amateur scammer. (Please note that many scammers DO own their own domains.)

It’s hilarious that two of the “authors” on their homepage are name John Smith and Jane Doe!!! I did a reverse Google image search on the picture of “Jane Doe.” The book she is holding was written by another author!

They use a gmail email address (most scammers do).

They only have 3 “posts” on their homepage, and they’re all dated the same day – February 26, 2026. They have three other post teasers on another page, also made on the exact same day, that say “upcoming,” “coming soon,” and “forthcoming.”

They claim to have featured a book by a bestselling author, “Mark Lee.” However, the real author of the book the guy is holding up is B. Rain Bennett (who is also a filmmaker). And, that is the real author holding the book. This scammer simply gave him a different name in the description.

I contacted the real author (he responded right away), as well as another author whose photo they are using. I’m quite sure that all of the author photos on their website were stolen from the Internet.

Nobody said scammers were smart!!!

According to Google: “Yes, internationalwriterschronicle.mystrikingly.com is highly likely a job scam. The site uses a .mystrikingly.com domain, which is a free, easily created webpage template from the legitimate site-building platform Strikingly. Fraudsters frequently use these free subdomains to set up temporary, disposable ‘company’ or ‘publication’ pages to appear legitimate to unsuspecting job seekers.Here are the standard red flags associated with this type of scheme.”

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