How to Protect Yourself from Online Fraud! (Part 1)
Image sourced by Clint Patterson @cbpsc1
I’ve seen a lot of stuff in my day. Or to put it another way, “It’s not my first barbecue. . .”
But this scam reached new heights or perhaps more appropriately, new lows! It was a real eye opener.
But before we dive in, let’s define a few key terms:
Cyber Crime or Online Fraud means someone launches an illegal activity that uses a computer, digital device (for example a Smartphone), or a computer network to commit a crime or cause harm, typically disgorge money or steal money or steal your identity – Identity Theft.
Affinity Crime means an investment scam that targets people that are part of a particular group. Examples include a religious group or ethnic group, the elderly or professional organizations. The criminals play to the victim’s heart and emotions, often relating to a particular (seemingly) common cause or common mission.
In the case of this Budget and Grow Rich® blog post series, the affinity crime revolves around an author’s desire to get picked up by a literary agent and get their book published by a major publishing house.
My friend Roger is also a published author; we met in an Author’s Club.
At the beginning of the year, Roger self-published a book and uploaded it on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) – Amazon Kindle.
A few months after Roger launched the book on Amazon Kindle, he received an email from Jerry, an editor at Macmillan – OR someone pretending to be a Macmillan editor.
Let’s call the Macmillan editor “Jerry. . .”
We’ve changed the names to protect the identities of the people involved.
[Jerry Green] WAS In Fact a Macmillan editor.
Jerry’s email was a Gmail in this format: JerryGreen.mac@gmail.com.
The first Red Flag was that an editor reached out to Roger and a corporate employee was emailing from a Gmail address and Not a corporate emails address.
Roger assumed, probably as many would, that “mac” was an abbreviation of Macmillan (publishing).
Years ago, Macmillan, one of the big New York publishers, actually published one of Roger’s books.
In my experience, it’s not out of the question in the publishing world that an editor with a publishing house would reach out to an author. Similar to a college and professional sports scout, publishers are always on the lookout for new authors and Amazon is a good way to source new writers and books. After all, publishing is a business too.
Jerry complimented Roger’s book and writing style and said he was interested in learning more about his books and potentially publishing one.
An author’s dream!
I Can relate.
Roger and Jerry emailed back and forth a few times.
Since Roger lives close to New York City and Macmillan’s headquarters is in New York City, he asked Jerry to meet for coffee. “Jerry” responded that they could meet Once Roger was represented by a literary agent.
Jerry wrote that he deals only with literary agents; and he gave Roger an email address for “Andrea Jones” who was supposedly a literary agent.
Andrea’s email format was: AndreaJonesAgent.UK@gmail.com.
Andrea’s signature file:
Andrea Jones agent
Literary Agent | Representative
I represent writers and match
stories with publishing opportunities.
Roger emailed Andrea.
She replied and asked Roger to send her a “Book Proposal” so she could evaluate his book.
A book proposal is a standard industry requirement.
A book proposal includes a description of the book; table of contents; a summary of the market for the book; a comparison with competing titles; and one or two sample chapters.
Somehow, Roger understood that Andrea was based in London.
Roger told me that he checked online and noticed that Andrea Was a published author on Kindle and did in fact live in London.
BUT he could NOT find any information or reference online that Andrea was in fact a literary agent.
The fact that Roger didn’t conduct more thorough research into Andrea was a MISS!
In some cases, this chain of events Could be possible.
Because some people that have “day jobs” and moonlight or have side hustles operate under the radar. They don’t want to publicize their side hustle online in fear of jeopardizing their day job.
Regardless, Roger sent Andrea the Book Proposal.
A day or two later, Andrea emailed Roger and said that in order for her to take Roger on as a client, Roger should work with a “Book Consultant” to upgrade his book proposal.
She recommended “Allen Brown” who was supposedly a book consultant and included his email address which was also a Gmail.
Allen’s email address was: AndrewBrown@gmail.com.
Roger, believing that Jerry, Andrea And Allen were legitimate, emailed Allen. Excited to get moving, Roger hired Allen to rewrite his book proposal.
To make a long story short, in the end Roger said the Whole Thing was a SCAM!
A Big Fat Scam!
But read on; there’s More!
◊◊◊<§>◊◊◊<§>◊◊◊<§>◊◊◊<§>◊◊◊<§>◊◊◊<§>◊◊◊
Looking to gain peace of mind and retire comfortably and worry-free?
The Time-Tested Roadmap to create your personal wealth-building plan.
To multiply your wealth Click here!
◊◊◊<§>◊◊◊<§>◊◊◊<§>◊◊◊<§>◊◊◊<§>◊◊◊<§>◊◊◊
Follow these 17 ways to protect yourself from online fraud; avoid falling for cyber crime scams and affinity crimes; and protect yourself and protect your money:
Always Be Skeptical of unsolicited offers and unsolicited invitations, especially from unknown people; unknown senders; and companies that you are not familiar with; and from people overseas.
Be doubly on guard for processes that include multi-sequence steps or a chain of tasks and events.
You have to do “this” to get here and do “that” to get to the next link in the chain.
Check the sender’s email address carefully.
Roger said that Jerry’s email was a Gmail address – NOT a Macmillan corporate email address.
Most company employees and representatives do NOT use their personal email address to conduct company business.
Be suspicious of any email outreach from a Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Outlook, or AOL email address claiming to be from a business or company.
But there can be exceptions to the rule. For example, I list my personal email address on my LinkedIn.
Make it a practice to check ALL emails you receive from unknown senders Very Carefully. Be skeptical!
If you receive an email or voicemail from someone claiming to represent a major company or business, ask them to email you from their company email address. If they don’t or they refuse, stop responding!
Pay very close attention to the domain. Hover your mouse over the email address and be on the lookout for spelling errors.
For example, a lower case ‘L’ could be a lower case ‘I’. In addition, sometimes, for scammers English is a second language (ESL).
Be on the lookout for emails that contain poor grammar, spelling errors and incomplete thoughts or incomplete sentences.
When you reply to the sender and ask questions, gauge the quality and completeness of the sender’s responses.
Roger told me that when he asked Allen about whether Andrea was a literary agent, he avoided the question. He didn’t answer the question.
And so on.
Be on the lookout for evasion, incomplete answers and indirect answers.
Contact the business’s corporate offices Directly to Verify the sender’s identity and whether they did in fact contact you.
Do not call the telephone number that an unknown or suspicious sender includes in their email.
Instead, look up the company’s telephone number on the company’s website.
Note the company’s URL and evaluate whether the website address is legitimate or seems legitimate.
One way to verify the website, if practical, is to check out one of the company’s products. A product label or box is likely to feature the company’s URL.
Regardless, Be Skeptical.
Visit the company’s website and review it for legitimacy; noting though that scammers can create a bogus website and a bogus company.
Check LinkedIn and possibly Facebook to get background information on the people. Then verify the people through an independent channel, for example by calling the company directly.
Typically, a telephone call is likely to be more effective than an email to a company’s general email box.
Because companies don’t always respond to emails sent to a general email address or a website comment box.
But Note though that scammers Can create Fake LinkedIn and Facebook pages!
Go AI.
Prompt ChatGPT or Claude and ask whether each person is legitimate.
In other words, ask AI if the people are who they say they are, do what they say they do and live where they live.
For example, Roger queried, “Is Andrea [Last Name] a literary agent?”
For example, “Does Andrea [Last Name] live in [London]?
Do Not click on any links included in an unknown sender’s email. The URL could contain a computer virus and harm your computer.
Request a few references, ideally from people you know directly, and require samples of the work product.
But, people could falsify references and work product too.
Tricky business.
As a general rule, Don’t sign any contracts.
If you are considering signing a legal contract, seek legal advice Before signing any contracts.
Do NOT give anyone, especially a stranger, your checking account, savings account, or credit card information.
If you decide to proceed and pay, pay in small installments and Use a Credit Card.
Payment terms could include a small down payment; a progress payment or two upon reaching a milestone; and a final payment upon delivery of the agreed upon product or service.
A milestone is an interim or intermediary step in the process. In the case of a book proposal, one step could be the cover letter to the literary agent; and the next step could be the book proposal itself; and so on.
With milestone payments, if there’s a problem it’s possible you can stop the process, limit your financial losses and hopefully reduce your losses.
Pay through an “intermediary” such as a credit card or payment gateway. By paying through an intermediary, you may have some recourse.
In Roger’s case, Allen initiated a request for payment via Payoneer, a global payments company. Roger paid the publishing consulting fee with his Capital One Visa Card which turned out to be a Good Thing in the end.
If you are the victim of a scam, consider contacting law enforcement, for example the Police or the FBI, Immediately.
Some 20 years ago, I was the victim of minor Identity Theft. Some scammers in Florida opened four charge cards in my name and made some charges at four brick and mortar retailer.
I called the credit bureau, spoke with the fraud department and asked whether they reviewed the retailers’ video surveillance cameras.
The fraud department representative said that they retain the surveillance videos for only a week or two. I didn’t ask why but guessed that they use them for capital crimes and violent crimes, perhaps armed robbery [that was a long time ago and maybe the video retention policy has changed; but better to be safe than sorry.].
If there’s a problem or something looks questionable, Act Quickly, ASAP! And. . .
Remember the old rule of thumb, “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”
The publishing scam was seemingly plausible, close to the mark but not quite. The comments didn’t all add up or make complete sense.
But the writing and the players’ comments and answers to Roger’s questions were iffy and incomplete at best.
Very Lucky Roger got his money back!
This publishing scam illustrates a variety of potential scams – a form of affinity crime – that are floating around out there. But the underlying theory and premise are the same across scams.
Amazing what scammers and criminals will do.
If only the criminals would direct their intellect and savvy to making the world a better place. So it goes.
Always be on guard out there!
This blog post is part of a 4-part series:
Next week, in Part 2 we’ll interview Roger, Q&A.
In Part 3, we reprint the email sequence between all the parties: Jerry the alleged Macmillan editor; Andrea the alleged literary agent; and Allen the alleged publishing consultant; and,
In Part 4, we’ll share a True Story about My Aunt Rose who was 87 at the time. She got fooled by a telephone scam and ended up sending thieves $17,000 in four or five payments. Ouch!
Stay safe out there!
See you next week.
Arthur V.
To multiply your wealth Click here!
Arthur VanDam, CPA MBA
Build More Wealth Right Now Click here.
Budget and Grow Rich® – ISSN: 2992-9296 – USA International Standard Serial Number (ISSN)
Disclaimer: OH and Please Remember, we are Not financial advisors, financial planners, attorneys or accountants and are Not providing any specific financial, tax, accounting or legal advice here. Be sure to conduct your own due diligence and consult your own professional advisors to get sound professional advice that’s specific to your financial and personal circumstances, risk tolerance, time horizon and investment goals and objectives among other key factors! In addition, note that companies change their offers and terms and conditions periodically so the savings presented in this article / blog post may be outdated when you are reading it.
10 Easy Ways to Accumulate $1,000,000 Now!
The Often Overlooked Secrets to Building Wealth
Commonsense how-to delivers a frank conversation with a rich uncle – a step-by-step wealth-building system that will help you build wealth like clockwork.
How to Succeed and Achieve Your Dreams!
Tired of the rat race?
To Succeed even bigger, greater and stronger, 10X your success – click here.
Budget and Grow Rich® is the original e-book guide to easy budgeting and wealth-building. Gain financial freedom and pour money into your pockets today and for years to come.
Finally, the proven roadmap to building wealth – how to make a personal budget that really works. Explained in plain English – easy to follow, practical steps. Since 1974, personal finance expert and author Arthur VanDam has used this system to organize his finances, manage his money and amass wealth. Now you can too. This straightforward guide tells all! Handy spending plan worksheet includes 14 categories that does it all. Practical tips and ways on how to create a financial plan and put your financial plan on auto pilot. Budgeting At Your Finger Tips will help You save more money, build more wealth, gain peace of mind and enjoy financial freedom.
Take your Business, Career & Life to a New Level with this Experiential, Immersive Live Event FREE!
How to Make Money in your Spare Time Writing Letters.