IMPORTANT! If you are considering hiring a “publisher” you’ve found online (or someone who reached out to you – spam or telemarketing), ASK ANGELA to check them out before you send them a penny! She is heading up our research project and she can spot the scammers in less than 5 minutes using the same methods she utilizes while researching the more than 800 overseas fraudsters that are now on our spreadsheet.

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TAKEAWAYS:

• When a scammer runs an ad on Facebook, Meta Platforms (the owner of Facebook) PROFITS from that ad.
• Facebook routinely declines to take action to remove an ad or page when it is reported by another Facebook user.
• Meta is well aware that foreign companies are scamming people using their websites (Facebook and Instagram).
• We have submitted hundreds of complaints to Facebook over the past several months. After Angela contacted the head of Meta’s legal department, we were introduced to Meta’s Legal Investigations Unit. We started sharing specific details about each scammer, including their Facebook account links, and offering screenshots as proof of the scams. Facebook at first removed a handful of those pages. However, Facebook has not responded to any of our other correspondence, which included more scammer names, Facebook page links, details about the scams, and offers of screenshots. It appears we’ve been ghosted by Meta/Facebook. Are you mad? We are, too! Just for you, we’ve included contact information for those folks at Meta/Facebook in the article below.
• If you’ve been duped by a scammer on Facebook, please contact Angela. We are compiling a list of victims.

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Several months ago, I identified roughly twenty-five blatant publishing scams on Facebook. I marveled at that number. Today, the tally exceeds an alarming 800 predatory publishing scammers advertising their “services” on Facebook, Instagram, and even LinkedIn.  It’s spiritually depleting, to say the least. So many people assume that, if a company is buying ads online, it must be legitimate. Appallingly, some people still even believe that everything on the Internet is true.

I watched helplessly as my colleague fell prey to a publishing scam orchestrated by PublishingMojo.com. Adding insult to injury, my elderly colleague subsequently bit on a Philippine marketing scam promising to exponentially increase his book sales. Brutal.

It has become evident that many of these predatory sites are interconnected. A single “entity” will cast a net using multiple domain names in an effort to snag as many unwitting, naïve, and elderly aspiring authors as possible. A perfect example is a recent exposé by WriterBeware.org.  A single, nefarious “entity” that has 28 domain names, is using John Grisham and J.K. Rowling’s pictures as literary exemplars of its own work product (which is, of course, illegal).

The response to this onslaught from Meta Platforms, Inc., the parent company of Facebook, has been tepid – almost indifferent – at best.  While Facebook affords its users an avenue to report fraud, its AI bots routinely – almost automatically and with complete indifference – deny removal of a Page or Advertisement, notwithstanding patent violations of Meta’s Community and Advertising “standards.”  Any appeal is equally flaccid and an exercise in futility.  Curiously, Facebook has implemented an Oversight Board to scrutinize appeals further. Obviously, further review is discretionary. In an age of “optics” and almighty earnings, plausible deniability that there is a problem is the game. Revenue, at any cost, is king.

Far from transparent, Meta Platforms, Inc., just a few weeks ago, responded favorably to complaints sent directly by Angela to its Legal Investigations department and its Chief Legal Officer. This was their response:

Dear Angela

Thank you very much for your emails on this issue; I can confirm we are reviewing the situation urgently.

If you have further urls on this topic which you believe are violating content, I would be grateful if you could share them with this account.

Best wishes

Legal Investigations

That is the first and last email (dated 1/14/2025) Angela received from them.

Given the recent 44-million-dollar Philippine publishing scam, I’d like to believe that Meta Platforms, Inc. would start to recognize that it has a serious credibility problem, and a repugnant infestation.  Facebook is beyond compromised by virulent, predatory publishing (and other!) scams. It is deluged by these relentless and unscrupulous cretins. Enter the doppelganger variant.

Foreign and domestic publishing predators are beyond aggressive. Deception is their game. When a Facebook page or a website domain gets knocked down, predators simply make a slight alteration in their name or website URL, put up a new website, and register under a new name with Facebook. Foreign page managers even compete to steal the goodwill and trademarks of venerated publishing icons. The assault on the LEGITIMATE powerhouse Macmillan Publishers is an example:

McMillan Book Publisher (the article Angela wrote exposing them)

On Facebook:

McMillan Book Publishers, Original Facebook Page ID: 294283063771160

Now: Mcmillan Book Publishers, Created 01/16/2025.  Facebook Page ID: 466909563182490

See also: Mcmillan Book Publishers LLC, Created 07/29/2024.  FB Page ID: 400202119838602

Notice the slight name changes? You would think, with the technology utilized by Facebook and Meta, that they could detect these types of obvious fraud by the same people, over and over again.

It goes without saying that Amazon.com, Inc. is probably the most infringed upon trademark by the publishing predators.  Aspiring authors become bleary-eyed trying to discern which Facebook Pages are legitimate and, unfortunately, almost all of the publishing company ads that are popping up in my and Angela’s Facebook feeds right now are scammers. They all have the same look/feel, they have similar syntax errors, their websites have the same basic design, and more.

While the Federal Trade Commission and FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) have sites to lodge complaints for Internet fraud, the sites are not user friendly, and are onerous, and cumbersome.

Here’s the good news. In light of the Philippine publishing scandal involving PageTurner Press and Media, LLC, a simplified reporting process has been created. You simply have to email the FBI AuthorFraud@fbi.gov. Patience is in order. Last year, over 5 million complaints were filed using the FBI’s IC3 portal.  Keep in mind that the Philippine scandal dates back to 2017!

In my estimation, Meta Platforms, Inc. is erroneously hiding behind the limited federal immunity afforded to providers of “interactive computer services” under Section 230 of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended by The Communications Decency Act of 1996. Their tactics scream for scrutiny, oversight, and intervention.

In other words, I think it’s time for the FTC and the FBI to start investigating Facebook’s actions.

Meta is knowingly accepting remuneration for flagrant illegal activity on its platform.  Under the 1996 amendment to Section 230, Meta Platforms, Inc. is not immune from Federal criminal prosecution.  Moreover, it is not immune from violations of intellectual property law.  Meta is, however, categorically immune from liability for holding predatory scammers to account for their flagrant violations of Federal criminal law and intellectual property law. Meta has reached the proverbial fork in the road.

Is Meta / Facebook going to start protecting their legitimate, honest users from foreign scammers, who are primarily elderly folks who aren’t able to discern a legitimate publisher from a scammer? Facebook can discern that for them! Or, will Meta / Facebook continue to profit from overseas criminals who are stealing money directly from Facebook’s innocent and elderly users? They KNOW what’s going on and they’re not stopping it.

If you, too, are furious about this situation, I urge you to contact Meta / Facebook directly:

Jennifer Newstead, Chief Legal Officer: jnewstead@meta.com

Meta’s Legal Investigations Unit: LegalInvestigations@meta.com

CSC Global (Meta’s registered agent) has a contact form you can use.

RELATED

• How to Tell if That So-Called “Publisher” is REALLY Located in the U.S.! By James M. Walsh, Esq.
• FRAUD ALERT: Why 5-Star Reviews on Trustpilot Can NOT Be Trusted – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• A List of Publishers and Services That ALL Authors Should AVOID AT ALL COSTS!
• DON’T MISS THIS ONE! Publishing Mojo Claims THEIR REPUTATION WAS HARMED, But Then Stops Responding After MORE Allegations Surface!!
• BEWARE! Is A So-Called “Publisher” Asking YOU to Sign a Non-Disclosure Agreement? – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• COMPLAINTS about Ingram Spark / IngramSpark.com – by James M. Walsh, Esq.
• COMPLAINTS about Iconic Book Publishers PLUS How Foreign “Publishers” Are Extorting Money from U.S. Authors!
• COMPLAINTS about Publishing Mojo / PublishingMojo.com – by James M. Walsh, Esq.

JAMES M. WALSH, ESQ. is a former Navy JAGC officer and a recipient of the American Bar Association’s coveted LAMP Award for excellence in military legal assistance practice. A rolling stone, J.M. has globetrotted most of his adult life. After the military, J.M. pursued commercial real estate development, leasing, and asset management. He resides in Catania, Sicily. He spent almost twenty years in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania’s Luzerne, Erie & Lackawanna Counties. His handiwork as an editor and author is interspersed throughout this novel. Leo A. Murray fondly refers to J.M. as his collaborative, literary ‘Coach’ or ‘Lieutenant.’ Agnes claims that he has gypsy in his heart and rabbit in his feet.

James’ thriller, Maximum Impact, written with co-author Leo Murray, was published by Abuzz Press.

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