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Imagine that someone comes to you to ask your opinion about some decision they are trying to make. Maybe it’s dating or marriage advice. Maybe it’s something about their career. Perhaps it has to do with some large purchase they want to make.
You give them excellent advice based on your expertise, along with facts and logic; not emotion. Then, they go and do the EXACT OPPOSITE of what you advised.
You wonder to yourself, “Why did this person ask for my advice in the first place!?” Kind of makes you want to slap them upside the head, doesn’t it?!
Well, we suffer this experience on an almost-weekly basis. Authors write to Angela Hoy, who has been exposing scams in the writing and publishing industries for 28 years now.
They ask: “What do you think about this publisher?” or “What do you think about this marketing service?” or âThis company wants me to pay them $75K to make my book into a movie!â
As we’ve said many times, there are so many scammers out there now, they literally now FAR outnumber legitimate businesses!
Ninety-nine percent of the time, Angela will do the research, and discover that the “business” an author is looking at is indeed a scammer, and will advise the author as such.
Most authors thank Angela and are very grateful to her for saving them from making a huge mistake and losing LOTS of money.
However, some authors’ responses simply baffle the mind. Some will argue that, to them, the scammer’s website looks legitimate. Some argue that the person they have spoken to on the phone or traded emails with sounds SO professional. Some are even dumb enough to tell the scammers, “Angela from WritersWeekly.com says you’re a scammer.” Then, the author will literally come back to us and argue that the scammer PROMISED them that they are not a scammer! (Donât EVEN get us started on the âmoney-back-guaranteesâ that scammers put on their websites. Authors actually think those false statements will protect them later!)
We’ve even had authors ask for our advice AFTER sending a scammer money, and then they send even MORE money after we warned them that the company or individual IS INDEED a scammer, and explained exactly what our research revealed!
Listen to this episode, and you will be shocked at the psychosis that some people suffer from. It’s almost as if they WANT to be scammed out of their money! It always leaves us asking that infuriating question: “Why did they ask us to research that âcompanyâ in the first place?!”
Listen to this episode, and you will, like us, be scratching your headâŚor pulling your hair out. Don’t miss it!!
If you enjoy the original music featured at the beginning of each episode of our podcast, and if you’d like your OWN original music for your podcast, website, and/or videos, contact Mason’s Music!
Do you think you might be the victim of a publishing scam? CONTACT ANGELA AND BRIAN.
LINKS DISCUSSED IN THIS EPISODE
- MORE AMAZON KDP COMPLAINTS! â Why Complain When You Can DO Something About It?
- EPISODE 43: 16 Possible Reasons Why Amazon KDP Permanently Closed Your Account (But they wonât tell YOU why you were banned!!)
- 11 Ways to Know If a âPublisherâ or Other Service Provider is an Overseas Scammer (Youâll probably only need to check #1 to prove it!)
- The Times Square Billboard Ad Scam Targeting Authors â by Angela Hoy
- DONâT MISS THIS ONE! Genre Library Solutions / genrelibrarysolutions.com Tries to Trick Us Into Removing Our Warning About Them; Gets Caught Committing Additional Fraud Instead!!!
- A List of Publishers and Services That ALL Authors Should AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
- COMPLAINTS about Ingram Spark / IngramSpark.com â by James M. Walsh, Esq.
- âCelebrity Authorâ Impersonators Are Fooling Unwary (Real!) Authors
- EPISODE 37: BEWARE! New FAKE âServicesâ Being Offered to Authors By Scammers
- Scammers Impersonating Amazon are Charging Authors THOUSANDS to Get Their FAKE Amazon Accounts Back!
- COMPLAINTS about PageTurner Press and Media / pageturner.us
- OPEN AND OBVIOUS DANGER! Gmail Email Scammers are Targeting MILLIONS of Authors! By James M. Walsh, Esq.
- EPISODE 21: 20K Publishing Scam Victim Shares Her Own Story
- Jennifer Westecott’s YouTube Channel
- Jennifer Westecott’s book: Heartbreak Falls
Don’t get scammed! Publish your book with BookLocker.com.
HAVE A QUESTION ABOUT SELF-PUBLISHING A BOOK?
a self-publishing services company that has been in business since 1998. Ask her anything.
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Just when you thought, âHow could this get any worse?âânow thereâs a company promising to protect you from fake companies that promise to protect you from scams.
Good thing theyâre the real McCoy.
Angela, thank you for your letters! Yes, there are so many scammers that it’s difficult to find an honest publisher. I checked 51 of them and found 45 were-are scammers.
My question to all of us: Can we, the writers and honest publishers, do something to protect the American market from all Pakistani-Nigerian-Mexican., etc. criminals? Can the Congress adopt the stricter laws?
Best, Pavel
Unfortunately, there are so many scams now (millions upon millions), and not just in the publishing industry. Romance scams, insurance scams, “line of credit” scams (fake loans that they make you pay a fee for up-front, but you’ll never get the “loan”), moving company scams, real estate scams, and even fake law firms online. That’s just a drop in the bucket. Scammers have literally infiltrated every industry. Back in the day, we were able to block IP addresses from places like Nigeria. They couldn’t see our website, nor contact us. That doesn’t work anymore because they’re all using VPNs. Our government doesn’t have the time nor the resources to take extra measures to protect Americans from being scammed. All we can do is help to educate people about scams, and hope they listen to us. Most do. Some don’t. And, that is sad. đ
Angela
You should charge to give advice, I would; I try to avoid doing anything for free if I can. This will also sort the wheat from the chaff so to speak.
There are countless “scam recovery services” online now that are also scams. They say they have investigated the situation, have recovered your money, and that you have to send them a percentage of that as payment. They then disappear (because they never recovered anything, of course.) The fact is, if they had recovered any money, a legitimate recovery service would simply take a percentage of what they recovered, and send the victim the rest.
I do not want anyone to assume I’m involved in that type of business. My services are free. It’s a public service I’m happy to offer because it helps educate future potential scam victims.
Angela Hoy