Writers and authors are prime targets for cons: overpayment scams, fake clients, stolen bios, the “old friend” who suddenly needs money. These posts dissect real scams, exactly how they work, and the tells that give them away before they cost you.
Scams & FraudA name I had not seen in thirteen years appeared in my Facebook messages, an old friend who within a few lines had no money for food. I knew where it was going before she got there, because being scammed…
Scams & FraudMost social media audits are about looking professional: clean up the photos, polish the profile. That misses the real risk. Your posts, check-ins, and images are a map for anyone who wants to find you. Here is how to audit…
Business BooksTony stole $3,000 from me at 26, and twenty-five years later that con probably saved me thousands more when a Facebook scammer came calling. I thought I understood deception, I had worked in early computer security. Tony taught me otherwise.…
AI WritingMichele paid a ghostwriting agency for a bestseller package and got back something unrecognizable, wrong voice, full of errors, clearly produced by someone who never read her draft. An assembly line, not a ghostwriter. Cheap quotes, stolen bios, and bestseller…
Scams & FraudThe internet overflows with schemes promising millions in a week, and most are case studies in exactly how not to make money online. I know because I tried plenty, starting with Don Lapre's 900 numbers. It went as badly as…
GhostwritingIt looked like a dream inquiry: a businessman with fifty years of experience, a $35K budget, a six-month timeline, real-looking credentials, all of it engineered to harvest free writing samples through a fake project. It nearly worked on me. Here…
GhostwritingThe email looked perfect, professional, polished, a serious ghostwriting project worth $90,000. The scammer spent a full month building trust before the trap sprang: an overpayment scheme designed to leave me $4,000 in the hole. The longer these cons run,…
Scams & FraudI have been scammed twice, once by a con who spent a month building trust before springing a $90K overpayment trap, once by a fake businessman harvesting content through paid samples. Both were sophisticated, and both exploited blind spots every…
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