Recent Scammers

A couple scammers have been brought to my attention recently, or have brought themselves to my attention. Let me show you something. This is an email I received in March. I meant to post about it earlier, but it slipped my mind until now.

My response: Oh, the growing demand for book-to-film projects, eh? Mm-hm, I’ve sure seen hordes of movies produced from random good lesser-known MG novels. Why, you can’t turn around without tripping over movie adaptations of The Lost Conspiracy by Hardinge or Jinx by Sage Blackwood or The Magic Thief by Sarah Prineas. That’s why you’re sending me a letter about a book that’s been out (does rapid arithmetic) FOURTEEN YEARS. A book that was optioned by somebody or other at the time it was published. (This is common and seldom goes anywhere, by the way.)

I didn’t actually say that. I said, “Sure, that totally sounds plausible. If you’re for real, then this book is still under contract to Random House and you would need to contact my agent. Somehow, I don’t expect to hear back from you asking for her contact information.”

I didn’t say, “Barbara Walters, huh?” even though I’m aware this is surely a fake name. I did google “Hollywood Talent Agency,” which at the time had a website, though I see it seems to have vanished, which didn’t take long, since it’s only been a few weeks.

The coherent English sort of makes this look like it could be legitimate, especially if the name “Barbara Walters” doesn’t ring any bells and especially if you find a website when you search on Google. However, obviously this is a scam, and not one I had personally seen before.

***

The reason I thought of this was that today I received this email from S&S —

Dear Simon & Schuster Author,

We have become aware of an increase of scams targeting authors. These scams can take many forms. For example, bad actors have set up accounts on social media (X, Facebook, Instagram, Threads, and more recently Bluesky) pretending to be established authors, and using these accounts to target prospective authors, offering fake services to facilitate introductions to editors at Simon & Schuster and elsewhere.

This is a new one on me. The email continues:

In some instances, a scammer will impersonate an agent/editor/author requesting versions of a prepublication manuscript. In other instances, scammers have impersonated Simon & Schuster employees to gain personal information from authors or demand payments for fake services or certifications. These scammers will make phone calls pretending to be a Simon & Schuster employee, or they may use our logos and signatures to send letters or emails from domains that look very similar to our official domains, as listed below. In some cases, these scams incorporate detailed information that make the communication feel more authentic, such as the name of an agent, the names of Simon & Schuster employees, or details about the author’s publication history.

Even if you don’t intend to become a regular user of a new social network, claiming an account under your name can help thwart bad actors who might set up impersonation scams. Your marketing team can help you navigate these new social networks, how to set up an account, and resources for best practices.

That last is a good suggestion, which I hadn’t thought of, but even though I don’t really do anything with social media, now I’m glad I claimed my own name on Blue Sky. Then S&S provided the short list of legitimate website addresses that are truly theirs and warned that scammers often use addresses that are off by one letter, which I knew, but it’s a good warning.

***

One more: here’s a 2021 post from Victoria Strauss at Writer Beware, because sometimes scammers pretend to be major studios and work with the author not to propose a movie to studios, but to actually produce the movie, for A LOT of money.

This is what I thought of first when I received the email from “Barbara Walters.”

Victoria Strauss says:

This is not the way things work: literary agents aren’t “assigned” to represent you without your knowledge, and major film studios don’t randomly stumble on books and reach out to agencies you never heard of, which then cold-call you. In fact, real agents only very rarely reach out to writers directly. For scammers, on the other hand, it’s their main recruitment method.

Any out-of-the-blue solicitation or offer should be treated with suspicion.

These are, basically, words to live by.