Perhaps I should have titled this “How to Make Friends and Influence People – the WritersWeekly Way!” But then, who would have clicked on that title?
WritersWeekly has been in business for 28 years. Angela has received her share of threats – including death threats – throughout that time. You would think that just publishing books and writing about writing would be a rather safe lane to be in. Who could possibly be so pissed off at her as to want us dead? But, the world is full of nut-jobs. And Angela seems to be a sort of magnet for them. You can simply never tell what is going to set someone off.
Seriously, we could come onto WritersWeekly and post an article that says “Writing is a LOT of fun, and we LOVE it!” and somebody would develop a seething hatred from the 7th plane of Hell against us.
Then, somewhere along the line, we started exposing international scammers, and educating our readers on how to avoid being scammed…and BANG! It’s like we’ve become Osama Bin Laden on the Navy Seals’ hit list!
Well, to be honest, we aren’t just on WritersWeekly telling our readers about how to avoid scams. We talk a lot about it on The WritersWeekly Podcast, which you should ALL be listening to if you aren’t already. (Go ahead… I’ll wait while you bookmark it on Apple Podcasts for your next cross-country car trip.)
Angela also spends a LOT of time on social media exposing and directly confronting scammers in front of everybody when they post in groups and on private messages. And it’s working! More and more, we’re seeing scammers come in and say, “Hey everyone! Post a photo of your cover!” or “I’m offering bargain editing services – PM me!” – and they are getting smothered with responses of “SCAMMER!!!” from real authors in those groups. So, the education we’ve been sharing with authors has led to good things for authors, and to scammers losing multi-millions of dollars!
And the result? We get emails saying the scammers are going to come and kill us.
However, the grammar is always very bad, so it’s more like, “I going to be come and kill you like dead!”
Very hard to take seriously.
But this week, we got quite the doozy. Here it is, unedited:
Not much gray area there, I agree. But you have to look at the bright side of things. I see this as a sure sign that someone is losing so much money from our advocacy work concerning writing and publishing scams that they really don’t want us to educate authors anymore. So, as far as we’re concerned, I’d have to say the glass is half full, no?
Now, one thing that shocked me is that there is literally a website devoted entirely to allowing people to write and send anonymous emails. What could go wrong there?
All you do is go to the site, fill out the recipient’s email address, fill out the message box, and hit send. Voila! Someone receives an anonymous email from “donotreply@anonymousemail.com” with whatever nastiness you had to say in the message field. I can’t imagine ANY positive use for such a service. However, Angela reached out to them and their corporate office, and they are cooperating.
We have been in touch with local law enforcement and the FBI, and they are taking it seriously. That’s all I can say. (You know, national security and all.)
But what really troubles me is the part that says, “…SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS SO THEY RAPE AND CUT THE THROATS OF YOUR FAMILY FIRST RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOUR EYES BEFORE THEY BUMP YOU OFF!”
I mean – that ‘s ME!
I’m “the family.” Nobody else lives with us. And I really don’t feel like being raped. If you have to kill me, I get it. After all, that’s just the way it is in some of those third world hellholes.
But getting raped in front of Angela would just be embarrassing! And what’s worse, I doubt they’ll send a woman over to do the actual raping before they kill me. That means the hit-MAN will be raping me. I mean, come on guys – I simply don’t swing that way!
Then there’s the chronology. Did you catch that they threatened to kill us, and THEN flood our website with negative reviews? Seriously, what’s the point? I mean, we’re already dead. It’s not like we’re going to get to witness the downfall of our business.
But wait. Perhaps these guys ARE criminal masterminds. You see, we own WritersWeekly.com – lock, stock, and barrel (pun intended). Any comments that appear are only there because we allow them. If we’re dead, then we’re not around to delete all those negative reviews!
AHA!! Absolute GENIUS!
And what’s this??? “YOU MUST NEVER BE SEEN ONLINE AGAIN PROMOTING ANYTHING NOW OR IN NEAR FUTURE.“
Well, what about the FAR future? What if we take a month-long vacation? THEN can we come back and promote stuff online? The camper is cleaned up and ready to go. Maybe we can slip off to the Grand Canyon, and then maybe swing by Disneyland for the near future, and then we can get back to exposing scammers. Would that work?
Finally, I’m curious. Are there, in fact, serial killers and rapists for hire? Were Ted Bundy and John Wayne Gacy placing ads for their services? Is there a Craigslist for actual serial killers? Doesn’t that kind of take the fun out of being a serial killer – having to work for someone else? I always thought serial killers and rapists were mostly in it for the challenge. If you start putting yourself out there for hire, you have to worry about things like customer satisfaction, performance ratings, and benefits. Doesn’t sound fun at all. Now you’re just another working class schlub like the rest of us. Where’s the thrill in that?
And consider this: IF you were a serial killer/rapist for hire, would YOU want to work for a foreign scammer? Can you imagine how that would work??
“I’ll pay you $10,000 to bump off Angela Hoy. But first, you’ll have to send me $1,500 in Bitcoin to this bank account in Lagos. Once you do the job, I’ll need you to buy $5000 in Amazon gift cards, scratch off the backs and take photos of the redeem codes, and email them to me. Then I’ll need YOUR bank routing and account number so I can send your money.”
So, if Angela and I are dead – in the near future – rest assured it was probably some disgruntled scammer who got all butt-hurt because we were putting a major crimp on his profits. And while you’re pondering that, just pray that they didn’t rape me – because that simply wouldn’t be very nice.
RELATED
- Success! A Scammer Called Me A B****! – by (THE HILARIOUS!) Marsh Rose
- THIS THERAPIST IS HILARIOUS!!! Scammers Need Love, Too! (Or Maybe Just a Support Group…) – by Marsh Rose
- A Scammer Asked Us to Change Our Website Listing! And, Boy oh Boy, Are They Sorry Now!!! HA HA HA HA HA!
- Nigerian Scammers are Impersonating WritersWeekly, and Stealing Money from Translators and Writers!
- Shameless Scammer Publishing Mojo is at it again!!
Brian Whiddon is the Managing Editor of WritersWeekly.com and the Operations Manager at BookLocker.com. An Army vet and former police officer, Brian is the author of Blue Lives Matter: The Heart behind the Badge. He's an avid sailor, having lived and worked aboard his 36-foot sailboat, the “Floggin’ Molly” for 9 years after finding her abandoned in a boat yard and re-building her himself. Now, in northern Georgia, when not working on WritersWeekly and BookLocker, he divides his off-time between hiking, hunting, and farming.
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Angela, Angela – You’re keeping me busy praying these days!
Thank you so much for your prayers, Susan!!! Love ya!!!! 🙂
Ang
That is a hilarious post, Brian. Thanks for the laugh. I wouldn’t want you to get raped in front of Angela either! I hope the FBI are able to track these people down. There are many writers who are so thankful for the work you do. Not a day goes by without one scam email landing in my inbox – all the accolades and how they can help position my book in the marketplace – on a book that’s over 10 years old! And I just delete. Keep up the good work!
Hi Angela. I’ve been following your ongoing ‘adventures” with these knucklehead, dingbat scammers for many weeks now and have come to the conclusion that they are definitely candidates for the highly regarded “Darwin Awards”, wherein the candidate does whatever they can to remove themselves from the human gene pool. I’m thinking “who, in their right mind (har, har) would be so stupid to use a highly traceable medium to make threats against someone in a foreign country?”. Just a thought. In any case, it sounds like you have all the necessary defenses in place. But, I’m sure the stress has begun to take a toll. As your loyal authors we’re with you.
Hi Jory,
You made me laugh out loud! I needed that! 🙂
Big hugs!
Angela
Try wearing a bullet proof vest, and carry a submachine gun around with you wherever you go. Seriously tho’, if it was me I’d need several cups of tea to calm my nerves.
We are packin’ 24/7. 😉
Angela
My throat is suddenly feeing very vulnerable, and I’m in the UK!!!
I am glad you are armed and dangerous! Scum Scammers need to know Americans are armed and will shoot with accuracy and intent. I have taught hundreds of pistols classes for folks facing threats and I am still shocked when I hear how the EX still came after them knowing they were armed. One guy showed up at his ex-girlfriend’s home with an axe. He later said he didn’t think she was brave enough to shoot him.
Good for HER!!!!!! 🙂
Angela
The world is full of crazies and I’m so sorry they’ve trained their sights on you. Have you looked into Godevico Publishing? They’re advertising online. On sure giveaway is their tag line: Become A Award-Winning Author with Godevico Publishing.
HA HA HA! Those foreign scammers can never get their English just right!! 😉
Angela
Why is this person threatening you? You need to turn this into the FBI. This is evil!!!!!
They are scammers who are upset that our advocacy work warning authors about them has cost them multi-millions of dollars. It’s all been reported to local law enforcement and the FBI. The anonymous email service they used has agreed to work with law enforcement.
Angela
My goodness, why would someone say this to you and Angela? You promote writing. How is that harming anyone?
Christina
They are trying to stop us from spreading the word about scammers in the publishing industry.
Angela
This experience is going to linger in my mind for a long time, stirring up memories from five to six years ago that I thought I had tucked away. The emotions and moments from that period are flooding back, making me reflect on everything that happened during that time. It’s as if a door has been opened, and those distant memories are rushing in, bringing with them a mix of nostalgia and unresolved feelings. Be safe and stay alert.
This is utter insanity that someone would send this to you at a writing site. They must be some kind of desperate to instill fear in other individuals to send this to you. I truly hope the police and/or the FBI can find whoever it is because they have serious mental problems. And they desperately need to be locked away from society especially if this is their idea of a joke. Take care and be careful. Unbelievable…
Angela, It’s easy to laugh things like this off, but in the case of a death threat, I would take it very seriously and report it to the authorities. I mean it. Don’t wait and be sorry. This kind of thing should not be trifled with.
We do and we have. 🙂
Angela
Good grief! You’ve gotten under someone’s skin, Angela. But, since they’re not in our country, they’re going to have to hire a local. I don’t think they realize how expensive that is, and since you’re costing them money, I doubt they have the funds (or enough Amazon cards) to make payment.
Those wacky Indo-Russians! They evidently watch too many dubbed reruns of Matlock.
Pretty sure it’s coming from Lagos, Nigeria…
Angela