Scammers on Facebook and Instagram have targeted authors. They are creating profiles with author names and pictures and then solicit money from fans.
This special snowflake even attempted to join the official fan group to troll for victims.
How to spot a scammer
Most successful authors do not friend fans first.
This is a tactic sometimes used by self-published authors who are just starting out and are desperate to build up their fan base, but most established authors do not look for fans. We set up our pages and let fans find us and follow.
Legitimate authors never ask fans for personal information.
That is just not a thing. We don’t need your logins, dates of birth, and so on.
Legitimate authors never ask you for money.
We don’t ask you for money when we run promotions. We do not charge for giveaways and contests. Charging a fee of any sort for your promotion turns the giveaway into a lottery, which is extremely closely regulated by federal government. We can’t even ask you to pay for your own shipping if you win something in a giveaway.
How to determine if the contest/author are legitimate
Look at the profile that’s messaging you about that awesome book you won and now they just need you to pay $15 shipping. How many people follow the profile? Legitimate established authors will have follower count in thousands.
If you are still in doubt, google the author and go to their website. Almost every author will have links to their social profiles on their site. Click on the social media site where you saw the contest. Does it match the profile that’s messaging you?
If you are still unsure, use the website to email the author and ask them if the contest is legitimate.
Please do your due diligence. š And remember, if you are asked for money by “author” because you won something, it’s a scammer.
Itās popping up everywhere!!! 3/5 times I enter a giveaway by commenting Iām contacted by a similar sounding name with an added . or Xgiveawaywinner contact account. Relentless!! Itās scary to navigate the internet realm. My parents got scammed just last week by an Apple app from an ad in a diff app they were using.
I never respond to any requests by e-mail. Never. Just a habit. I go to the web-site online for any information. If I have received a scam/spam e-mail, and there are a lot out there, I always report it to the Company they allegedly represent. Amazon, Google, Paypal, etc.
If you think it is a scam, also check the e-mail address at the top of the page, which shows you who sent it. Just an example, only Amazon has an Amazon address in the e-mail. If instead, you see a long string of letters and numbers in the address, you know it is a scam. And, good advice from House Andrews in this e-mail. Protect yourselves from online scammers. Go to the source for information and don’t respond to the e-mail/social media requests.
Added to that is the growing number of romance scammers that use fake profiles and comment on a fan’s comment, then proceed to like all their posts, sends a friends request and then proceeds to scam you out of your money. >.>
I am not on social media but still get emails like the one last week from Abdullahi Nekely,a friend to the former Togolese defense minister, Kpatcha Gnassingbe Eyadema who promised me 5% of 75 Million. Or the inheritance waiting for me from a distant relative in the UK.
If something seems to good to be true it usually is. There is a scammer born every minute. As you said due diligence is a necessity.
Likewise, not on social media, but I’ll get spam calls, emails, and text. For some reason, someone is trying really hard to get me to extend my car warranty.
Some of the text and email ones have really weird email addresses/numbers. Makes me feel a bit insulted, like they think I’m so dumb I’ll click on anything. At least put a little effort into it, please.
Yes! I get car warranty calls all the time even though I block the number every time. I donāt even own a car – havenāt owned one in 25+ years ????????
The scam emails that are very obvious is often so on purpose, because it works as a filter.
That way the Bad Guys sort the skeptics away and are left with the people who will believe them and are easier to steal from.
I got voice-mails informing me of “suspect” activity on my S.S. card and that if I didn’t get in touch with them, my card would be blocked and the police sent after me. Subtle.
Watch a comedian by the name of James Veitch on YouTube. He is absolutely hilarious as he attempts to scam the scammers.
I appreciate use of your forum to raise awareness. It can be very sad, when folks are tricked.
Thank you for your kindness!
I’m relieved to be able to get to the post here. For a few days, I have been running into a Bitly FORBIDDEN page for Ilona Andrews and a few other pages. I’m baffled. I did not change anything in my settings, it just suddenly happened.
Anyway…
I noticed Patricia Briggs posting about this, too. It’s a shame. I rarely enter giveaways, sometimes on Goodreads, but rare. Some people do it often though, like my niece and it’s a source of great pleasure when she gets a book. Why some people need to find ways to spoil things for others has always been a mystery to me.
Great advice. My advice is if the e-mail is not familiar to you, delete it without looking at it. If a family member uses a weird e-mail address, get it before they send you something. My sister-in-law uses a different e-mail address that is not her name. She texted it to me before e-mailing me so I would know it was her and not someone else.
Scammers also try calling you on your cell phone. Even if you push the number for the “do not call” list, they will use a different number until all their options are finished.
At my work, we are warned about scams and phishing schemes. Our IT department sets up filters for our e-mails, but scammers try. If the e-mail is not an address I recognize, I usually delete it without looking at it.
Basically, if you have to pay when you win anything (not just with authors), it’s a scam.
If you get a check for a job (from online) and then have to buy certain things or send some back, it’s a scam.
If they want to buy something you’re selling, but pay extra and you have to send it back, it’s a scam.
If it’s some random company and they want to advertise on your car and you have to order or buy the stuff, it’s a scam.
If they ask you to pay with gift cards or prepaid cards, it’s a scam.
The IRS/sheriff’s office/FBI will not call and give you a warning about paying something or going to jail. If they are real and want you to go to jail, they will just arrest you.
I see a lot of different scams at work. The ones that really bother me are the grandparent scams. If you’re child/ grandchild/ other person needs you to bail them out, call the sheriff’s office directly. It’s most likely not your person on the phone.
I also see scammers trying to scare people with an IRS scam, or with a Medicare scam. If the IRS or CMS or any government agency wants to talk with you, they will send a letter in the mail.
It’s crazy!
This may depend on where you live. Where I live the IRS (called IRD here) prefer to go fully online and email is their preferred method of contact.
The one I get a lot is the āyour warranty is about to expireā automated message. Usually itās for my car (I donāt own a car) but the voice mails cut off well before I know what warranty is about to expire (I donāt answer calls from unknown numbers so they go to voicemail).
Needless to say, I donāt return those calls.
Just think of the problems that could be solved if these scammers used their creativity and energy for good instead of evil.
This very one just tried to friend me on Facebook!
I get emails from all kinds of places; too many of them seem to be trying to scam me. Mostly I know they’re scammers because I’ve never done business with whatever company they’re claiming to represent. It’s actually rather funny when it’s supposedly some bank worried about my credit card and it’s described as a MasterCard (haven’t had one of those in 30 years at least), or – even better – some bank I have never in my life even had an account at.
I have emails for the fraud reporting offices for those companies I do do business with.
I’ve never had anyone claiming to be an auther telling me I’ve won a book and send money for shipping. That, I think, would definitely have me falling out laughing.
Scammers are everywhere. One just left me a voicemail about “your car warranty is about to expire”. Yeah, just no. I take my car to a really good mechanic who charges reasonable prices and explains what needs to be fixed and why. (Also, my car is past typical warranty age.)
When in doubt, hang up, delete, block.
I just got that one before opening up this site lol
I get those and laugh because I don’t own a car. Which makes it very very easy to add to the spam list that I hope helps other people too.
Thank you for being guardian angels. There are scummy people in the world who will try to scam you out of everything you have.
As P.T. Barnum said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.”
However, he also said, “The noblest art is the act of making others happy.” This applies to House Andrews.
Off topic, but just out of curiosity, why at the bottom of this post does it say the previous post is “Paging Abigail Harrison”? I thought you had posted twice today and I had missed one, then I noticed it was trying to go back to a post from 2020. Is the previous post based on what category you put the post in? I assumed it was based on the post date, not category.
Tink, “Paging Abigail Harrison” was the last “Admin” Blog Post.
Ok, so it is category-related, not date-related.
Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I havenāt used my Facebook account in about a year, so wasnāt aware. However, the amount of scam phone calls we get about stuff, car warranty, Medicare, Social Security. Plus paid fundraisers where they only give a drop of money to group they are raising money for. Ugh ????????āāļø What really bothers me is that they keep coming because they are still making money, it saddens me to think that people give them money in good faith.
I hope everyone has a good weekend just be careful answering emails or the phone ????
Thank you for the heads up. For me the real problem lies in the fact that for every scam we detect the scammers are creating a new one. Will scam creation become a legitimate career in the future? There are some amazingly creative brains out there
Got one better. In January I received a FB message from an old friend of my fatherās. The friend had passed away last May. Heartbreakingly I had to tell one of his daughters. I then took all the steps to have FB boot him and negate the duplicate FB page. That special Snowflake went so far as to steal his profile picture.
My friend got the one about owing the IRS money. If she didn’t send them a gift card immediately, they would come and arrest her. She knew what was going on and told the scammer that if she was going to be arrested, then she would just drive to the police department and turn herself in. The scammer got VERY angry, cussed her out, and hung up on her. She had a great time with that! ????
I got email about how the IRS was refunding me money. Millions. And itās waiting for me at Union Station in Washington D.C. In silver luggage.
And I had to retrieve it immediately
It was signed Janet Yellen.
Well, wasn’t that nice of her.
What was the catch? You had to send $$ to get the combo to the luggage?
All you have to do is just send them your social security number, date of birth and driver’s license number so they can confirm it is you!!!!
Oh the ways they come up with to get money and its not even good ideas the sad truth though is it works.
I was scammed out of money almost 7 years ago and now I am very cautious about things and now I don’t answer the phone if I don’t know the number. A lot of times they are just wanting to see if it’s a live number so they can keep calling.
I do love watching the YouTube videos of the people who mess with the scammers especially the ones that can hack into their systems and delete everything and/or can lock them completely out. That’s a good use of a scary skill.
wow, just wow. Of course I may respond to comments here and there, but I DO NOT “friend” anyone I don’t already know, as odd as that may sound. I like my privacy and I have zero desire to have my identity stolen. And I don’t send money anywhere I’ve not vetted. And I delete emails I don’t recognize. I also don’t answer the phone if you aren’t in my contacts. I figure someone who really needs to contact me will leave a message. And somehow life goes on without all those calls and emails LOL.
+1
Thanks for watching out for us, House Andrews! I can’t believe how ridiculous internet scams are getting these days. It’s making me seriously consider deleting Facebook, but then I wouldn’t see all the great posts from fellow fans on the Ilona Andrews Fans page. š
Thank you for showing me!
Goodness gracious, Patty seems to be a big scammer target. I know if a reply says it is from her and isn’t signed “Ann the trusty assistant” it just isn’t real ????
I am still chuckling and the thought that you and/or Andrew may belong to a FB group called Jealous/Possesive Hero. Is this where you workshop for shifter mating habits? If so, what was their take on gluing someone to an office chair?
Oy. They’re everywhere.
I have had a couple of FB friends (one an author) have random guys show up in the comments on their posts, asking me and other females whether we can please be friends, because we seem like nice people. I haven’t bothered to explain that I’m not actually that nice.
Whether *we* can please be friends. And there should be a space between the close paren and “have”. Not that I’m OCD or anything.
Well, at least you’re not nice to yourself, too. š
š Just realistic. I’m usually nice to humans, but sometimes I have to work at it. I don’t see any reason to work at it with random human catfish. I’m nice to real catfish.
Fixed it for you.
Thank you!
Great advice!! A few days ago I got a friend request on facebook from an author I like and follow. But her name was slightly misspelled. I knew if was a scammer, so did not accept the request. It’s a shame people are doing this! In this day and age you have to be so careful!! Even a few months back I had a similar issue with Amazon, I had an email form Amazon saying my account would be locked due to suspicious activity if I did not reply to the email. I fell for it, till it asked for my social security number. I called Amazon customer service and found out it was a scammer!!! I had to change my password after that!! So please everyone be extra careful in everything you do, that was not even social media.it can happen in anything!!
I got one of those this is your grandchild calls. I asked who it was and they said your grandson. I said no you aren’t. I hung up. My oldest grandchild is 7 and does not call me. It is so sad that so much ingenuity and intelligence is going to waste trying to hurt people. I too have gotten cussed out by indignant scammers. Such is life. Scammers can ruin the best things.
I had a once in a lifetime perfect response to a phone scammer years ago.
Someone called after my father has passed away and asked for āRenzoā (his name from the phone book).
āHeās deadā, I said. āHe died last year.ā
Silence. And I was able to hang up without having to say anything else.
Still remains a high water mark in my constant fight against phone scammers.
I’ve used that one a few times! When they ask for my husband (and usually don’t pronounce our name right) I take delight in making them uncomfortable. I know that’s rude but I think my husband would love it, so too bad!
Thank you so very much for the heads-up. What a kick in the teeth for real aspiring writers who might be following their favorite authors to learn how the professionals do it. It seems as if the world is full of people who want to make a fast buck without the honest labor that goes into responsible earning. Again, thank you for generously sharing information about writing as a business. I have read everyone of your published works, but I follow the newsletter for exactly this kind of information.
Social media is toxic.
I had an email that actually had gotten one of my passwords from somewhere, apparently I had logged into a porn website and my activities had been recorded. If I didnāt hand over $4,000 they were going to post the recording to everyone on my social media sites. No porn sites from me, post away. Itās a bit scary however because you panic even when you know you have nothing to panic about.
The one that annoys me is when they leave a voicemail pretending to be picking up on a conversation they had with you earlier. They say they’re getting back with all the details you wanted on this fabulous investment opportunity, and it will only take $20K to $30K to get in on it. Continuing, with this script they say that you had told them you were ready for a larger investment so he had found the best available. This gaslight fairytale is a scam! And for some reason, I’ve had it happen multiple times! Grrr!
Thanks.
And now the vaccine scammers are out…
A friend got multiple emails asking for feedback on his Pfizer shot. Never mind that he got the Moderna.
Iāve worked really hard on educating and re-educating my 80+ year old mom on email, phone and text scams (she forgets and gets confused) and feel really sad for our older folks who have to deal with this stuff on their own. š
Thank you, Ilona Andrews for the post. I appreciate the education. Itās a shame. Bless their little āsnowflakeā hearts.
The best thing about Motherās dementia is that she no longer answers the phone because she doesnāt know what that ringing noise is anymore. But when she knew it was phone and answered, it was an ulcerative chaotic experience for the whole family. It didnāt matter how outlandish the claim was, she would believe it and fall for it. Sigh sigh.
Personally, I gave up answering phone the second year of elder care. Since my vascular cerebral accident and going partially deaf the other year, I no longer even hear the phone ring. ( The neurologist says my hearing will returnā eventually. When I read About prescribed prescription medications, one of known ārareā side effects is hearing loss. ????)
Thanks again for communicating.
Thanks for the heads up. Hadnāt heard about this one.
No Innkeeper this year (20/21)?
Hey Ian,
Please check the release schedule here https://ilona-andrews.com/release-schedule/ for the most up to date news on status of series, when there is any.
I hope this helps ????,
Not all legitimate authors have thousands of followers, and we still run giveaways. You do have to start somewhere. I barely have a fan page, because a lot of my readers aren’t on FB or other social media.
However, legit authors won’t ask for money. Period.