Image sourced by Markus Winkler @markuswinkler
Welcome back to our Budget and Grow Rich® blog post series on How to Protect Yourself from Online Fraud and Cyber Crime!
In case you missed part 1, we revealed an online fraud that involved a scammer – a cyber criminal – who impersonated (online) a senior editor at Macmillan.
Macmillan is one of the big New York City book publishers.
We also shared 17 ways to avoid becoming a victim of online fraud and cyber crime.
To catch up on part 1, click here.
We think these blog posts are pretty good. But you be the judge; let us know.
Someone might as well learn from our mistake(s) and be more alert to online fraud and cyber crime.
It’s EASY to fall for the scam! These cyber criminals and scammers are very clever.
They play on people’s dreams and emotions. They look to create a connection with the victim based on a common theme – a group that the victim belongs to or a cause or dream that’s important to the victim.
In this post, we interview my friend Roger. He’s a published author and actually ~15 years ago Macmillan published one of his books.
We’re not going to reveal Roger’s last name or the titles of his books. Because he told me he’s somewhat embarrassed that he fell for the scam. I can’t blame him really.
We’ve written this post in Q&A format – a friendly discussion.
We’ve boldfaced the questions to ease reading.
Hope you benefit and enjoy the format.
Let’s get to it.
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Roger, thank you for stopping in today. Tell us how you came to get mixed up in this scam.
As you know, my hobby is writing books.
At the end of last year, I self-published a book and launched it on Kindle Direct Publishing (KDP) – Amazon Kindle.
In the spring, I received an email from a man named [Jerry Green] who is a senior editor at Macmillan. Or someone impersonating Jerry.
Earlier you mentioned that Jerry’s email came from a gmail address?
Jerry’s email was a Gmail in this format: JerryGreen.mac@gmail.com.
I figured that “.mac” stood for Macmillan. . .
I looked online and Jerry Green WAS In Fact a Macmillan editor.
That illustrates the concept behind an affinity crime – playing on the victim’s goals and emotions and pretending to be part of the same group. Or seemingly providing a pathway for the victim to achieve his or her dreams. With an affinity crime, the connection could be with a religion, a school or a charitable cause for example.
Did you think twice about the fact that the email was a gmail?
Yes I thought about it. But clearly Not carefully enough.
Since I have a day job, I try to maintain anonymity and write under a pseudonym. Actually, in my LinkedIn contact information, I list my personal email.
People do all sorts of things.
Depending on the situation, it can be difficult to tell what’s real and what isn’t.
The first Red Flags were that an editor reached out to Roger and a ‘corporate employee’ was emailing from a Gmail address and Not a corporate email address.
Why did you get excited about this?
What author wouldn’t want to get published by Macmillan! That’s an author’s dream.
Getting published by Macmillan is a great win.
Did it concern you that Jerry initiated the contact, that he reached out to you, unsolicited?
Not really.
In my experience, editors are like scouts in college and professional sports. They are always on the lookout for new talent. Scouts attend tournaments and showcases.
Similarly, editors and publishing houses are always on the lookout for new talent – new authors and the next great book and bestseller.
And Amazon is a great place to look to find newly launched books. While many authors self-publish their books on Amazon, many of them are high quality. I like to think that mine are.
Amazon is one place I would definitely look. . .
What did Jerry’s initial email say?
Jerry wrote that he was impressed with my new book and writing style and wanted to learn more.
We both work in New York City so I responded and asked if he wanted to meet for coffee.
He replied that he doesn’t deal with authors directly and that I should get representation from a literary agent. Then we could meet.
This seems like an involved and intricate play! Then what. . .
Let’s examine Jerry’s language.
He tries to ‘bait the hook’ by leading me on. In other words, “I’m interested in your writing and your books; but Before we can do something together, I need X, Y and Z.
Jerry mentioned [an] Andrea Jones, [supposedly] a literary agent that he works with and he included her email address.
I assume that you emailed Andrea?
Of course; why not!
Andrea emailed back and said that in order for her to represent me, I had to send her a ‘Book Proposal’, which is also part of the road to getting published.
I interpreted her language that she would represent me based on Jerry’s referral and once I submitted a high-quality, professional book proposal.
I don’t know if she concluded that she would represent as my literary agent based on my initial draft Book Proposal; or she meant that she would have to evaluate it and analyze the market for my book.
Andrea said my Book Proposal needed some work and that she works with a book publishing consultant [Allen Brown] and included his email address.
Supposedly Allen was a ‘Book Consultant’.
Okay. . .
This ‘process’ includes a number of sequential steps. . .
All the steps seemed reasonable or reasonably reasonable, especially since Macmillan did publish one of my books although it was years earlier.
At the time, I had known my Macmillan Editor already from another book deal and she had asked me to write a book that would become part of a series.
Regardless, based on my knowledge of the publishing Industry, these steps weren’t unreasonable or out of the ordinary actually!
They seemed believable enough.
These cyber criminals are clever. They try to establish some sort of connection, a rapport with their victims and appear to be friendly. In addition, they prey on the victim’s emotions in order to extract money – their pound of flesh.
Did you write a Book Proposal?
Yes I did.
Since I had never written a Book Proposal before, I queried ChatGPT to generate a Book Proposal outline.
Chat gave me the sections a Book Proposal should contain, like an outline. And I began to write.
I couldn’t seem to find a complete sample Book Proposal online although maybe I didn’t look hard enough or query (prompt) Chat in the correct way.
I ended up writing 68 pages including the Table of Contents and two sample chapters.
My writing wasn’t as tight as it might have been or probably should have been. But I wanted to respond to Andrea relatively quickly and to show interest. Right or wrong, I figured that since Jerry was interested in my writing, Andrea and I would discuss my Book Proposal and she would make some suggestions to improve it to make it more attractive to an editor.
Were there any other red flags or yellow flags?
As I look back Yes.
The whole thing bordered on reality – believable enough that it could be real – but at the same time questionable for the discerning eye.
And since I wanted to get published by a major publishing house, that carried weight.
As I look back, the person or people emailing me – their written English was decent, but it seemed like English was their second language (ESL). More like ‘textbook English’ rather than conversational.
Is that so unusual?
Not necessarily, especially in today’s global world. The Internet means that people from the four corners of the globe can interact and conduct business.
But English as a Second Language (ESL) was one more flag in the bunch.
In addition, the timing of their email responses was a bit odd.
Typically, they responded very quickly, almost immediately upon receiving my email. It was almost as if they were monitoring their computer, ready to pull the net in tighter. They probably were.
A couple of times, I made a comment about the scope of the service or the fee. Allen responded very quickly with a modification. One time, he waived Payoneer’s payment processing fee of $46.
And you wanted to believe that this was your ticket to getting published by Macmillan again, right?
Totally!
My friend Bill is a four-time New York Times bestselling author.
Now, I’m not saying that my writing is on that caliber.
But all authors have hope!
What were Allen and Andrea’s email addresses?
Allen’s was AllenBrown@gmail.com.
Andrea’s was AndreaJonesAgent.UK@gmail.com.
[Note: these email addresses are fictional for illustration purposes; we made them up.]
Again, did it seem odd to you that the email addresses were gmail addresses and not a corporate email address?
A little but that didn’t really register as I mentioned a few minutes ago.
Many of my friends have day jobs and they have side hustles too.
And they have a hotmail or gmail address for their personal email.
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What happened next?
Allen requested his fee in full upfront – payment in full.
He initiated a payment request through Payoneer. According to Payoneer’s website, they are an “All-in-One Global Payment Platform for Business.”
I decided to pay with my Capital One Visa. Which turned out to be a Very Good Thing in the end.
Capital One sent me a text to confirm that I approved the charge.
Just as I was hitting ‘Yes’, it hit to me that this whole escapade was a FRAUD.
A GIANT SCAM!
BUT I had Already clicked ‘Yes’!
Along the way, did You check LinkedIn or another online portal to check out their backgrounds. . . noting that people can create a bogus profile or bogus website. . .
Not at the beginning. It was Only later on when I became Skeptical.
I guess I gave the scammers the benefit of the doubt. And again. . .
I was drinking the Kool-Aid about becoming a published author.
Andrea was listed on Amazon as a published author.
I typed their names into ChatGPT and it said that Andrea was in fact a published author and she lived in London; but Chat said that there is NO reference online to her being a literary agent.
As to Allen, there was very limited information about him online.
His profile had NO reference to his being a publishing consultant. He had emailed that he lived in London but the only Allen Brown I found, his profile listed another country, in Africa.
My online search did reveal an Allen Brown that lived IN Africa. But there was NO record of Allen living in London.
I asked him about that and he replied that he lived in London but his parents lived in Africa.
That was a clever answer. But of course I Didn’t believe him.
But again, it was too late by then. I had already initiated the payment.
So, we can safely tell our Budget and Grow Rich® readers that its Mission Critical to be SKEPTICAL, Especially Online and Look BEFORE You Leap. And Check LinkedIn and Conduct Other Searches to Sort Out and Verify a Person’s Background?
Without a doubt!
That was a HUGE Mistake on my part.
I don’t know what I was thinking.
Clearly, I wasn’t.
I guess I wanted to believe that Macmillan was interested in my writing. And again, the emails and the sequence and the chain of events, were not out of the ordinary or unreasonable.
Did you consider telling Allen that you would make a down payment and milestone payments when he delivered each section of the project? And then a final payment when he delivered the entire completed project?
Actually I did.
But I didn’t slow down to think about it carefully enough.
The Book Proposal package included a cover letter and a book proposal.
Initially, I had thought that the cover letter was a standalone document, a letter, that I could use to introduce myself and the book to an editor.
Turned out that the cover letter was only a few paragraphs long and was part of the Book Proposal.
It didn’t seem practical to break down the project into pieces.
I should have.
Needless to say, if I wanted to pay, I should have made a down payment and then installments – installment payments – based on performance milestones.
Needless to say, paying at the end or based on performance milestones would have been sound risk management.
Did you lose your money?
Now that’s an interesting story.
I did Not lose any money, Thankfully.
After I authorized the payment, I called Capital One Immediately!
They said that since I authorized the charge and they sent – wired – out the money left the bank, they could Not pull back the money.
I resigned myself to losing the money. But nonetheless. . .
On that call, I filed a fraud claim – Immediately.
They credited my account with the funds but said that they could pull that back and I would be liable for the charge
Next, I called Payoneer. They said they couldn’t do anything.
Almost every day, I called Capital One. Their customer service – fraud team was excellent.
On one call, Capital One told me that Allen had to answer my claim and provide his ‘side of the story’. In other words, he had to dispute, refute my claim.
Did Allen respond?
Capital One said that Allen did respond and disputed my claim.
But Capital One said that his write-up was illegible. So his response wasn’t valid. Which turned out to be a good thing for me.
Allen emailed me, asking for payment. I responded that he had to resubmit his paperwork to Capital One.
I don’t recall if he answered my comment; but he said that he deserved to get paid since he delivered the work product. He also asked me if it was okay if he submitted another payment request.
I kept repeating that he had to resubmit his paperwork to Capital One and we had to reactivate the payment through Capital One.
This went on two or three times.
For whatever reason, he didn’t.
Actually, then Allen delivered the Book Proposal, right?
YES! That’s the crazy thing.
He Actually Delivered the Book Proposal. I was Very Surprised. I did Not expect that.
What’s more, amazingly enough, The Book Proposal was really high quality.
I don’t know if Allen entered my draft Book Proposal into AI or edited it manually.
With just a few tweaks and modifications, I can actually use the Book Proposal, which I plan to do.
How did you feel?
I felt badly about receiving a product or service and not paying for it. Not in my DNA.
So I emailed Allen that he deserved to get paid and I wanted to pay him.
He did deliver and I’m an honest person. So paying him seemed like the right thing to do, regardless of whether he’s a criminal or not.
I couldn’t pay, given that there was the risk I could end up paying twice.
The problem was that Capital One told me that my initial claim was still open. In other words, Allen could respond – dispute my claim – and Capital One might release the money and charge my account.
Then I would be liable for the money.
I emailed Allen and told him that he would have to respond to Capital One.
He also said that since I filed a fraud claim with Payoneer, they terminated (closed) his merchant account and he had to send me a payment request through another channel.
I don’t know whether Payoneer actually terminated Allen’s account or not. It didn’t matter.
At that point, I was on guard and didn’t believe anything he said.
I thought it was VERY Important to follow Capital One’s instructions.
I replied that I could not pay through another channel and would not do that. Because I could end up paying twice.
Over the course of a few weeks and a number of emails, Allen got more and more annoyed, saying I was being unfair and unreasonable because he delivered the Book Proposal and he shouldn’t have to wait for his money.
In a ‘normal’ situation, that would be reasonable. Although in a normal circumstance, Jerry would have spoken with me on the phone or met with me for coffee.
Over the next couple of weeks, Allen’s emails became more and more irate.
Earlier, you mentioned that you have a close friend that’s a retired FBI Agent?
Yes I do.
Donald was an FBI Agent for 21 years.
He told me to stop answering Allen’s emails and ignore him.
Ignoring someone didn’t feel good to me. But I stopped answering his emails.
Interestingly enough, Donald said, “Criminals maintain a database of victims, sort of like a list of ‘hot names’, hot prospects.
In other words, if I paid any money, it’s likely that Allen would sell my name and email address to other criminals and scammers and they would target me with other scams.
I did not respond to Allen and all of a sudden out of the blue, Jerry (the Macmillan Editor) emailed me, asking how things were going.
That was nuts. Why would Jerry email me like that? Highly unlikely. But again, by that time, I didn’t believe one word that Allen said.
The next day, Andrea emailed me too, asking how my book proposal was going.
Also nutty and unrealistic!
I ignored Both emails.
Clearly a Scam!
It’s been over a month since I have heard from Allen, Jerry or Andrea.
Hopefully, I won’t hear from him or any of them ever again.
Crazy world!
Did you find the whole thing unsettling?
For sure!
And upsetting too.
It’s very unsettling when people try to scam and stalk you.
Most people are honest. I try to be.
But clearly some are not.
How long did the whole scam run?
Probably about three to four weeks from the date the Macmillan editor reached out to me and then when I stopped responding to Allen’s emails.
Please share with us one funny line that Allen wrote.
Towards the end of our email correspondence, Allen wrote, “Now I feel like I’m the one that is getting scammed.”
I laughed.
I was tempted to write back, “Now you know what it feels like to get scammed.”
But I thought better of it and didn’t.
Separately, after my last email exchange with Allen, an “editor” from another publishing house reached out to me and also someone else claiming to be a big investor that wanted to invest in my publishing business, which includes a few books, a website and a blog.
Hardly enough meat on the bone to invest in.
As they say, “Truth is stranger than fiction!”
Thank you Roger. That’s quite a story. Thank you very much for sharing.
I’m Sure your comments will help our Budget and Grow Rich® readers stay safe and protect themselves and their money.
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Always be on guard out there and stay safe!
Next week 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.
See you next week.
Arthur V.
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