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EDITOR’S NOTE:

The Gmail email scammers listed in the article below were impersonating a real author and these legitimate companies when communicating with this author:

• Meghan Quinn
• BookSoup.com
• Trellis Literary / trellisliterary.com
• Barnes and Noble
• Indie Rights.com 

It’s extremely likely that one person was contacting this author from multiple Gmail email addresses. Once a scammer hooks an author, they will stop at nothing to get more and more money out of them. 

And, since the scammer requested payment via Paypal’s Friend and Family method, the author is not eligible for any refunds from Paypal.

AUTHORS BEWARE!

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I was the victim of several online scams. My name is M.M. Lorenzo and I have self-published eight novels.

One day, I received an email from this address: meghan.quinn@gmail.com. She presented herself as an author. She said her name was Meghan Quinn, and she wanted to help me out since I was a new author. I checked Amazon and found out that an author with that name was real. So, I thought the offer was real.

She suggested I contact BookSoup.com to display my books there. She gave me an email address, and I got a reply from this: info.booksoup.customerservice@gmail.com. I paid them using Paypal’s Friend and Family option.

Then, the same email address emailed me saying I needed movie formats (book trailers) for my books. They gave me this company: https://www.trellisliterary.com. I paid them using Paypal’s Friend and Family option.

Then, I received an email supposedly from Barnes and Noble. They said they were interested in publishing my books. The email was: noblebookstorebarnes@gmail.com. I paid them using Paypal’s Friend and Family option.

Meghan Quinn then suggested I contact this company to upload my movies (book trailers): https://www.indierights.com. I received an email from: indierights1@gmail.com. I paid them using Paypal’s Friend and Family option.

Then BookSoup (the imposter) told me they wanted to create audiobook editions of my books. That request came from info.booksoup.customerservice@gmail.com.

Meghan Quinn then gave me a different email for audiobook creation: brackettjoel004@gmail.com. I paid  using Paypal’s Friend and Family option.

Finally, Meghan Quinn gave me this email address for book marketing: jasongeorge020326@gmail.com

Then, there was this person: johnrichard030326@gmail.com: John Richard said he also wanted to help me create audiobooks.

PayPal said they can’t do anything because the payments sent via the Friend and Family option.

In total, I paid around $13,000.

Those email addresses stopped replying to me on November,18, 2025.

An an author, I am very new in this business. I want everybody to be careful about scams.

RELATED

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• “Celebrity Author” Impersonators Are Fooling Unwary (Real!) Authors
• NEW SCAM! “Pay us $26K and we’ll stock 3,500 copies of your book in 150 stores!”
• A Scammer is Impersonating Macmillan Publishers
• How the Fake Sony Pictures Tried to Scam an Author into Hiring a Fake Literary Agent
• “A fake publisher scammed me out of $22,000. Can I deduct that from my taxable income?”

M.M. Lorenzo is the enigmatic name of a multifaceted writer whose debut novel, Beirut Thriller, is a mix of intrigue, betrayal, and redemption set against the backdrop of a war-torn city. Lorenzo brings a unique depth to his storytelling, weaving psychological realism into high-stakes plots that explore the complexities of the human condition. Lorenzo’s insights into human needs—ranging from the primal drive for survival to the quest for emotional fulfillment—often manifest in his themes, highlighting the contradictions that define us: the pursuit of connection amid isolation, or the clash between ambition and morality.

M.M. Lorenzo’s other novels are: The Italian Thriller: Cash & Vendetta, The Marbella’s Flamenco: Dancing with Death, The Marbella’s Plots, Colombia’s Secret Flowers, The Fentanyl Frontier, The Brazilian Mystery, and Empire of the Globe. You can read about all of his novels on his website: https://MMLorenzo.com

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