Out of the Blue, Did a Complete Stranger Create a “Free” Website or Logo for You?

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Q –

Hi Angela,

Somebody contacted me on Facebook saying he’d created a website for me for “free.” He gave me the link. It was under his domain (i.e. https://[my-name].[his-domain].com). It even had my book cover on it, and an old picture of me that he obviously got from Facebook.

It looked really professional. When I asked him how I can use it, he told me I’d need to pay him a fee to move it to another host (like GoDaddy). $3500! I can’t afford that but I really like the website. Then, he offered to accept payments, saying he’d transfer it after I made my final payment. He also created a logo for me that looks really neat but that was going to cost me an extra $300. He also wrote a book review and put it on “my” website. But, I knew after reading the review that he never read my book.

Should I start sending him payments? I really like the website he made!

P.C.

A –

Scammers are getting so desperate that they’re doing work up front, unsolicited, and then requiring lots of money if the authors want to use what the scammers created. That is the exact situation you are in. IMMEDIATELY STOP RESPONDING TO HIM!

I recently heard a disturbingly similar story from a woman who liked the pre-designed website so much that, not only did she pay big bucks for it, but the guy also convinced her to move all of her domains to “his” hosting service. He told her that the hosting contract required, by law, that she provide her social security number and banking information.

You can tell where this is going, right? As of today, the victim has spent thousands of dollars trying to simply get her own websites back. The crook keeps asking for more and more money, each time promising this is the “last time,” and giving bogus excuses why it’s going to cost more. And, it’s never going to end.

The scammer not only took her websites hostage, but is now also blackmailing her. Yep! Since she refuses to pay him anything else to get her websites back, now he’s threatening to sell her social security number and banking information on the dark web. Since he’s in Pakistan, there is literally NOTHING she can do about it (except to change bank accounts!). Even if she had the money, he’d never give her websites back to her anyway. She is literally out of business.

What were her mistakes?

1. THE BIG ONE! Responding to a random person who contacted her on social media.

2. Not thoroughly researching everything about that person (it’s not hard!).

3. Sending that person everything he needed to steal her identity. I’m still shaking my head over that!

4. Transferring all of her other websites to someone she clearly had not researched.

Never, ever, EVER respond to people who contact you on social media, or who spam you, or who call you on the phone. THEY ARE ALL CRIMINALS!

You can save a lot of money by simply creating your own website. There are countless websites and videos on how to do that.

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