I recently went ‘public’ on my writing. I’ve written all my life for my own pleasure but recently completed the first book of a trilogy, and made the announcement I guess. As part of that, I set up a profile on X (formerly Twitter), which I have avoided generally as a platform because it’s a bit of a cesspit in my opinion. But, as someone pointed out to me, there is a strong writing community on there and it’s where the agents etc. can be found. One thing I have learned as a consequence, however, is that is also where the grifters and scammers are.
My first run-in was with someone purporting to be looking for writers for a client, they were posing as a recruiter. It all seemed incredibly genuine and an interview was set up the following week. In the interim, I was to send over samples of my work which I duly did. The first thing that should have tipped me off was that everything was conducted over Telegram. I’m not a huge fan of that platform either, but I’ve had experience of it where coaching has been provided (not to me) via the platform and so I went along with it. All correspondence was very professional, there were logos and letterheaded correspondence sent over. My intuition was nagging at me that something wasn’t quite right with it all, but I decided to ignore it. I thought I was being overly paranoid. This person who had ‘recruited’ me took a step back, as recruiters do, only once or twice asking me how things were going from my perspective. All ordinary. The interviews happened over the course of a week and I was interviewed by a series of executives from the organisation and set challenging writing deadlines with genres given to me – again, all expected and the interviews themselves raised no red flags other than it being done exclusively over Telegram. Then the news came that I had been successful in my application. I was sent a confirmation letter and what looked like an outline contract of employment that I was to sign and which had already been signed by the executive. I was given a task immediately and a deadline date for it. Then the really big red flag hit – as soon as I was told I had been successful, the ‘recruiter’ contacted me on X to congratulate me. Literally, within minutes of being informed. Alarm bells were clanging, made louder by the request…’as a gesture of goodwill for bringing this opportunity to me, would I consider purchasing an Apple gift card’. Now, the fortunate thing was I didn’t have any money in my bank account that day as a lot of bills etc. had been paid. So, I had to decline the request. That was it for me, I realised I had been scammed. I left it a few days then logged back on to Telegram – all the correspondence had disappeared. Everything. When I tried to log in with the link I had been provided, a completely different name and address flashed up. I got in contact with the ‘recruiter’, asked what was going on and was fed a line about how someone would be in contact, that it wasn’t all a scam. I simply replied saying that I might have believed that, except and outlined the really huge red flags. The ‘recruiter’ then, hilariously, blocked me on X. As though they had been the victims! I contacted the organisation (which was a legitimate one, I had Googled it from the outset), and gave them the heads up that their name was being taken in vain so-to-speak. And I moved on.
I remained on X though with a lot lower engagement rate. I had a message in August from an author, nothing significant just asking if I was published. At the time, I wasn’t and I said as much. End of. She didn’t contact me again and I forgot all about it. Fast forward to November, and the author contacted me again. Now, the really interesting part (spooky?) was that an acquaintance of my husband happens to know this author well. Naively, I trusted again and we conversed about self-publishing and marketing. There was no strong sell, no sell at all actually, just some really helpful support and advice. I contacted a few days later with an update, and we began chatting about marketing. This time, though, she asked me if I’d thought about getting professional support (rude!) for my marketing and when I replied that I didn’t have a budget for it, she asked me how much I thought I needed. The first red flag came when she quoted how much she had paid for the marketing – it was in US Dollars. We are both from, and work in, England. She would no more quote in US Dollars than I would. Then she put me in contact with her marketing person – this was another red flag because my husband’s acquaintance knows the author through her marketing person. Who was not the person I was put in contact with. This marketing person’s profile says she represents the author and one other, but she only reposts their posts. So her marketing skills are rather lacking I have to say. Again, my intuition was screaming at me. It kind of had been all along but this connection with my husband’s acquaintance kind of made me stifle it…it just seemed too coincidental to not be real. But when I was introduced to the marketing person, I decided to listen to my inner voice that was screaming SCAM! at me. We checked it out, and yes this marketing ‘guru’ is…a scammer.
What is the point of writing this other than to get it off my chest? Well, it’s just so…annoying! I don’t understand why the ‘recruiter’ from my first experience went to all that trouble for at best a US$50 gift card. I mean, I know they weren’t just targeting me, but it’s a huge amount of effort to get US$0 out of, hopefully, the majority of people they targeted. Similarly the marketing guru – it’s so much effort and thought going into something that again in my case, has yielded nothing. Imagine what these people, with this amount of ingenuity and skill, could achieve legitimately. The service they could actually provide to a community. Clearly not as a recruiter or marketer because they don’t hold those jobs. But in terms of their sheer creativity and thought processes, if they put that to some actual use imagine what they could achieve. It could be wonderful. Rather than leaving people like me with a very bitter taste in their mouth at best, at worst out of pocket with money they can’t afford. I’m forever grateful that I’m not in that position, but just utterly confused as to why you would go to that much effort…for what? I’m sure it’s a crime that is pretty much perfect – who’s going to track them down? You’d need a groundswell of complaints and in the morass that is X, you just won’t get the numbers of people coming forward. But how much money is worth it? How much money is worth compromising whatever integrity you have got to do that to people? I’m so pleased I just do not understand the thought process behind it. I don’t want to lest I become like them…though I can’t imagine ever being that desperate for money. And trust me, I have been broke!
I don’t know if the author presence on X is fake or not but the real author does know about this scam. So, that has given me some perverse pleasure at least. I would be so interested to hear the thoughts of others – have you had the same experience? Or can you shed any light on why this nonsense goes on? Please, do reply in the comments. I would be fascinated to know!
Louisa Simpson 