Goodreads Authors/Readers discussion

Someone calling themselves Karen White and a member of this group, commented on my post and requested a copy of my book.

As soon as I sent it they cancelled their goodreads account.
Be careful who you sent your book to!

Morgan wrote: "Someone calling themselves Karen White and a member of this group, commented on my post and requested a copy of my book.

As soon as I sent it they cancelled their goodreads account.
Be careful who..."

Morgan, Thats terrible, I'm so sorry.
Hopefully "they" will write a great review, :)

That person and at least one other that I'm aware of were running this scam a month or two ago. Goodreads even posted a warning at the top of the page for quite a while warning Goodreaders about it and letting us know they were working on getting rid of them. Looks like at least one of them is at it again. Be on the lookout. They use different names.

I was not aware of this! Thank you for sharing! Can’t be too careful.

Sheena

Many thanks for sharing, Morgan. Very sensible to let others know about this. It sounds as if Goodreads should be doing something about it if the same person's up to these tricks. <3

Morgan wrote: "Someone calling themselves Karen White and a member of this group, commented on my post and requested a copy of my book.

As soon as I sent it they cancelled their goodreads account.
Be careful who..."

Yep, the exact same thing happened to me. To do such a thing to someone is mind boggling. I guess some people have no conscience. Thanks for bringing it up.

Sorry to hear this. I think I received the same request a week or so ago - a gmail address, no KU access and did not look on Goodreads very often, so requested a PM.

A couple of things concerned me:
- They had only ever posted 2 reviews on GR
- They did not accept friend requests

Not concrete proof of course, but seemed odd if they were so keen to review books they had done it so rarely.
Thanks for flagging as a scam.

Thanks for flagging this. For myself, I tend to steer clear of such requests, probably because I am overly suspicious of why anyone would want to review anything 'for free', with only the offer of a review in return ('cos they get a free book, apparently).

I also get a bunch of emails every now and then (to my various email accounts), offering similar services. I generally look at the email source code to try to see if I can figure out the legitimacy or otherwise of the sender. Well, I used to. Now I just send it all to my spam folder anyway.

Thanks for the warning. I will pass the info along to my publisher. I didn’t entirely like the sound of “Karen White,” so I referred the matter to my excellent publicity director, Fiona, at Olympia Publishers. They are usually in charge of sending out review copies to the proper people. If she thought Karen was legit, a copy went out. But your info gives me the opportunity to warn them that Karen isn’t a real person, or is at least not genuinely intentioned. Thanks again! Job well done in protecting us all, and generous of you to send the info. Some people are so afraid of looking foolish that they don’t share info like this, and even more people end up getting hurt—kudos! Victoria Leigh

I'll tell you one thing that's not a scam, its me, I review all kinds of books. Thanks for posting this, I get scammers calling me all the time

Beware everyone 'KAREN WHITE' is at it again asking for books from every new author.

Check 'her' profile - there are ZERO reviews.

Thanks dear Morgan for awaring us

Hi all,
Was it a similar request to this:
"I wanna review it. Are you still offering copies? I can accept pdf and epub. You can send a copy to [email protected] or email me to discuss an alternative format. I am also a beta reader. Thanks"
I got this from someone just named Virginia with only two book reviewers on Goodreads and no account info too.

Yep - exactly!

Word for word. These people aren't very creative.

I suspect your book will end up on Saxo.com or some site in Romania.

Morgan wrote: "Yep - exactly!

Word for word. These people aren't very creative.

I suspect your book will end up on Saxo.com or some site in Romania."

I am so glad I didn't reply to her or email now, I saw your post pop up after I got her comment. Thank you for making the post :)

Funny I saw this post. I literally just saw a thing on my dashboard from a Virginia Rohde with this same message. Talk about timing. Thanks for the heads up.

This is one of the scammers

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1...

This is the message they send:
"I wanna review it. Are you still offering copies? I can accept pdf and epub. You can send a copy to [email protected] or email me to discuss an alternative format. I am also a beta reader. Thanks"

I'm rather upset at Goodreads over this - they can't demand that users add a profile with information?

If you sent this "Karen" a pdf you might want to check pirate sites - that is what they commonly use to freely distribute your books.

Personally I'd never send a pdf and only use BookFunnel's certified delivery which embeds a watermark into the file.

Morgan wrote: "This is one of the scammers

https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1...

This is the message they send:
"I wanna review it. Are you still offering copies? I can accept pdf and epub. ..."I saw this Karen in an introduce authors group and told everyone there that Karen is a scam, I guess they read my info. Thank you Morgan

Same Karen White, same message, same profile. I sent the ePub of my book, The Dog Whisperer, to the provided e-address. Shoulda checked here first. Argh.

At least I'm real and that I check all the books and write reviews, the scammers on here and Facebook is what's hurting us reviewers.

Unfortunately, since replying to that Karen White e-mail, I've gotten two more e-mails, equally nonspecific, advertising reviews but requiring a response, in one case that I identify myself as a "SERIOUS author." Seems like just more opportunities to put my e-address on additional spam lists that I'm probably going to end up on anyway. No thanks.

By the way, this kind of scam has been running for at least 2 1/2 years, here and/or elsewhere, by sources using Karen White or other names, such as Adriana Lucas and Lokyygg.

I haven't gotten one here but I had an Instagram account for about 5 minutes (that's an exaggeration - it was about 5 days) and that was about all I got.

Barbara wrote: "I haven't gotten one here but I had an Instagram account for about 5 minutes (that's an exaggeration - it was about 5 days) and that was about all I got."

I used to get ones like that a lot on here, now they pester me on Instagram. It's very annoying.

They've messaged me and a few others as well.
If it's a scam it could be for a pirate site.
Does anyone have anymore information?
Thanks

If you send out a pdf or an epub (which can be edited) they can pirate your book and sell it on their websites.
I've already found mine on sites in Romania and Germany.

Todd wrote: "Hello all,

I received this from a Bernardina Jones.

Hi, I want to review your book. You can email me a copy at [email protected]. I am also a beta reader. Please note that I am unable to downlo..."

Theresa wrote: "Barbara wrote: "I haven't gotten one here but I had an Instagram account for about 5 minutes (that's an exaggeration - it was about 5 days) and that was about all I got."

I used to get ones like t..."

Looks like same one I got on Instagram. Glad I ignored it.

Morgan wrote: "If you send out a pdf or an epub (which can be edited) they can pirate your book and sell it on their websites.
I've already found mine on sites in Romania and Germany."

I'm sorry that happened Morgan. I just have a question though: How do you check whether your book is pirated? Do you just type your book on the search bar or use some other method? I would like to be aware as well. Thank you in advance and sorry again that your book is pirated.

She's still around, now calling herself Maria Shuler. Beware!

Jowsey wrote: "She's still around, now calling herself Maria Shuler. Beware!"

Thanks for the tip.

Dion wrote: "Morgan wrote: "If you send out a pdf or an epub (which can be edited) they can pirate your book and sell it on their websites.
I've already found mine on sites in Romania and Germany."

I'm sorry t..."

What would really make me mad is if they sold more of my book than I do which would probably not be hard to do. :)

Guys,

So, there are no ways to sue them?

Morgan wrote: "Someone calling themselves Karen White and a member of this group, commented on my post and requested a copy of my book.

As soon as I sent it they cancelled their goodreads account.
Be careful who..."

That's ridiculous!

So sorry to hear it!!
Thanks for the warning!!

Russell wrote: "Guys,

So, there are no ways to sue them?"

It's really hard to do so. Sometimes you can have them take it down using DMCA, but if it's a foreign country, it's harder to do. Other than that, there's not much. There's several articles out on the problem. This is just one of them:

https://justpublishingadvice.com/eboo...

This happened to me on my first novel after I did a Kindle Free Book promo. I found out about it after seeing what my Google search results were bringing up. So I did a report to Google, citing copyright infringement and after a couple of weeks the rogue site disappeared from the search listings. They would only be likely to be relying on Search to get sales, so that is one way to stop that.

When I get free book requests these days I try to take an educated guess on whether to agree - based on user profile, email address etc.

Theresa wrote: "Russell wrote: "Guys,

So, there are no ways to sue them?"

It's really hard to do so. Sometimes you can have them take it down using DMCA, but if it's a foreign country, it's harder to do. Other t..."

Thank you so much, Theresa. I will take a look.

Michael wrote: "This happened to me on my first novel after I did a Kindle Free Book promo. I found out about it after seeing what my Google search results were bringing up. So I did a report to Google, citing cop..."


Thank you, Michael. That could be a helpful suggestion.

I reported this person through Amazon earlier today. I sent a Kristi an email from a brand new email address and now it gets spam messages related to writing. I don't think their aim is to steal material, rather just to get you to respond so that your email can be added to a mailing list.

Related: I saw something like this on my FB account. A woman I did not know said (on a post I shared, in my timeline) she wanted to review my book and posted an email. I googled the language b/c it sounded scammy, and sure enough it was a scam.

Be careful out there!

Morgan wrote: "Someone calling themselves Karen White and a member of this group, commented on my post and requested a copy of my book.

As soon as I sent it they cancelled their goodreads account.
Be careful who..."

Thank you for the "heads up"!

Quite devious. I suppose it is time to write a story about these fun people and how vengeance can be served. :)

Guys, I started a thread on Scammers over the summer and have been tartgeted twice by these low-life scumbags. Here is a link to the thread that they demand be taken down. Not a chance in Hell that will ever happen!

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Hope it helps. Take care and stay safe from scammers, Folks! =)

Russell wrote: "Guys,

So, there are no ways to sue them?"

Russell, I don't want to sue them. I want them found and prosecuted and spend the next 250 years in solitary confinement! That would be the best form of punishment that they deserve.

Morgan wrote: "Someone calling themselves Karen White and a member of this group, commented on my post and requested a copy of my book.

As soon as I sent it they cancelled their goodreads account.
Be careful who..."

Thank you for the heads up....terrible how people take advantage of others.

John wrote: "Sorry to hear this. I think I received the same request a week or so ago - a gmail address, no KU access and did not look on Goodreads very often, so requested a PM.

A couple of things concerned m..."

Awesome advice!

Morgan wrote: "If you send out a pdf or an epub (which can be edited) they can pirate your book and sell it on their websites.
I've already found mine on sites in Romania and Germany."


Similar experience, mine ended up in Pakistan to make matters worse; when I complained they launched a fake review attack on me. Took me a year to get it resolved; all but one has been removed.

Yes, I have also been scammed and sent a PDF copy. How did you find your book on those websites? How did you manage to get it removed?
Thanks
Adele

Robert wrote: "Unfortunately, since replying to that Karen White e-mail, I've gotten two more e-mails, equally nonspecific, advertising reviews but requiring a response, in one case that I identify myself as a "S..."
also Anne Russell

Gina wrote: "Russell wrote: "Guys,

So, there are no ways to sue them?"

Russell, I don't want to sue them. I want them found and prosecuted and spend the next 250 years in solitary confinement! That would be t..."

I totally agree!!