Fun with Scammers!

[A. E. Lowan]

So, we get one or two messages from scammers a day, and I usually just wield the Ban Hammer and keep on with my day. But today I got wrapped up in a couple of things and forgot to lay down the ban. And then this happened. Hoping it comes up in something like order. I suck at this part. lol

 

[Mad Swede]

Oh dear. And the scammer doesn't even have their own (fake) profile right. Comes from Chattanooga and lives in one of the most exclusive parts of London? Even I know London better than that...

 

[ThinkerX]

Facebook is infested with these scammers. One either hacked or impersonated a best-selling author. like this one, though, that scammer had a messed-up profile. Many FB book sites ban promoters altogether, sometimes extending that ban to include anything 'fiver.'


For that matter, most of the legitimate promo sites yield so-so sales at best. I find that the cheapest genre-specific ones - those in the ten-dollar range - produce results as good as or better than the ones demanding five or six times that.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

Oh dear. And the scammer doesn't even have their own (fake) profile right. Comes from Chattanooga and lives in one of the most exclusive parts of London? Even I know London better than that...

Yeah, it's so very bad. And the scary part is how many writers will push aside all of the red flags and go charging in, anyway, just for any scrap of validation.

 

[Demesnedenoir]

I just keep getting threatened with Facebook banishment. So boring.

 

[Jackarandajam]

ROWDY. You could recommend a few books on sales strategy maybe? How To Talk To Anybody and The Greatest Salesman In The World come to mind.
I'm impressed by your professionalism, I would have suggested 3pm behind the swingset

 

[A. E. Lowan]

ROWDY. You could recommend a few books on sales strategy maybe? How To Talk To Anybody and The Greatest Salesman In The World come to mind.
I'm impressed by your professionalism, I would have suggested 3pm behind the swingset

Oh, oh I am so much worse than that. One FB group where I'm visible and contribute a lot is Fans of Urban Fantasy. Awesome sexy group, just a fantastic place to chat and find your tribe. Pretty sure our lady scammer found me through one of these groups. So, I'm pretty sure she's going to see where I started a thread on Fun With Scammers! and posted the screenshots. Not her real name, and I'm certain not in any way an actual professional page, but it does cause a bit of shock to find someone's posted about you to 43k+ other people, a ton of them in publishing in some way, and they all have feelings about this. But, I don't play.

 

[A. E. Lowan]

And then I posted all of it to the biggest group I'm in, 20Booksto50K, which has 77.5k members, all in publishing. Hope that's not the name she wants to do business with. When I say that publishing is an industry where reputation is everything because everyone knows everyone else and their business, this is what I'm talking about. Get a rep for shooting off garbage like this person did, and it's probably time to change industries.

 

[Prince of Spires]

I just keep getting threatened with Facebook banishment. So boring.

Same for me. They never try to sell me anything