Q –

Angela,

A month ago, I received an email from a young person (I think) who purports to live around the Memphis, TN area. He supposedly manages a private book club that does Amazon book reviews by offering a book to the club members, who then read it and leave a review to “boost the algorithm” as he calls it. I just read this morning that Amazon doesn’t like that and may cancel my account if found out. I’m asking if this sounds like a legitimate marketing service or not.

My red flags are that he keeps changing the email addresses he wants me to send the money to because I keep insisting on using the safety protocols on my Paypal business account. His are personal email addresses and not a business domain name, for one thing. Also, he has a pushy attitude. The last email address he sent me was to something right out of an ISIS database. I say this because I am a retired Army veteran with five tours to the middle. I mean, who would use an email address like mahmoodtafida@gmail.com these days? Anyway, if you read this, please let me know if my instincts sound right to you. Thank you.

Terrance

A – 

Hi Terrance,

It’s a very common scam. See:

A NEW WAVE OF SCAM EMAILS IS TARGETING AUTHORS! “My book club wants to review your book!!”

The emails are full of flowery compliments about the author’s book and all of that was written by AI. The scammer knows NOTHING about your book.

The changing email addresses were indeed a red flag. That means others were reporting them as scammers and they kept needing to set up new email accounts. Good for you for doing your homework!

These fake “book clubs” charge authors by telling them to “tip” the book club members. Of course, all of the money goes to the scammer directly. He says he’ll distribute the money to his members. But, he won’t because there ARE NO MEMBERS.

They were also going to tell you to send them a certain number of copies of your printed book – that YOU have to pay to get printed, and that YOU have to pay to get shipped. Guess where those copies end up? For sale on Amazon, Ebay, and other sites!

And, yes, if Amazon thinks you are buying book reviews, they can ABSOLUTELY blacklist your book(s) – forever.

If you need marketing assistance, we highly recommend Clayton Jones. Our authors rave about him!

His TikTok Trailers are also very popular!

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