Authors, need your book published in time for the Christmas shopping season? Contact us RIGHT AWAY and get $125 off at BookLocker! Details and the discount code are RIGHT HERE. 

Q – 

Hi Angela,

I hope all is well with you! I’m kind of paranoid about scams these days, and I was wondering if you could give me some guidance on an email I received today. The sender is Rose Madison, who had emailed me and asked me to send her the Amazon link to my book. Are you aware of any scams where they do funky things with links to authors books? Maybe I’m overthinking this email, but I just wanted to run this by you just in case.

She wrote:

“I saw your book recently and really appreciated the way you’re putting your work into the world, it stood out to me. I wanted to ask you a quick question that I thought you might have a unique perspective on. I know your time is valuable, so no pressure at all, if this isn’t the right channel, I totally understand. But I figured I’d try, just in case. Here’s the question: Are your books available on Amazon? If so, could you please share the link?”

A – 

Yep, it’s a scam. “She” (likely a guy in the Pakistan, Nigeria, or the Philippines) was going to pretend to buy your book, lavish praise upon you, and then try to sell you services.

You can tell it’s a scam because:

1. The email is far too general, and doesn’t mention your book (or anything about it). Even if the email did mention something about your book (some scammers do a bit more homework than others), the rest of the email was just weird.

2. It says she (he!) needs your unique perspective on something, but doesn’t mention what that is.

3. He then just asks you for the Amazon link.

As you can see, none of it makes any sense.

A real customer (non-scammer) would have simply looked up your book on Amazon, and purchased it.

RELATED

• “Celebrity Author” Impersonators Are Fooling Unwary (Real!) Authors
• Is Your Favorite Writing Group on Facebook Being Moderated by a Scammer?
• NEW SCAM! “Pay us $26K and we’ll stock 3,500 copies of your book in 150 stores!”
• DON’T MISS THIS ONE! Genre Library Solutions / genrelibrarysolutions.com Tries to Trick Us Into Removing Our Warning About Them; Gets Caught Committing Additional Fraud Instead!!!
• EPISODE 1: “In Just $299” – Publishing SCAMS You Need To Avoid!! Part 1 – Angela and Brian expose the surge in global scams targeting writers—using slick websites, social media, and calls to sell bogus writing and book-to-movie services…
• EPISODE 2: “In Just $299” – Publishing SCAMS You Need To Avoid!! Part 2 – Angela and Brian reveal how WritersWeekly fights global publishing scams and share practical steps to help you verify if a publishing company is legitimate or…