Review-Scams > Likes and Comments

I just received an Email from someone who calls themselves "Ashley S. London," offering reviews for books by authors, which will then be posted on Amazon and Goodreads.
The person uses a generic gmail-Email-address.
If you do a simple Google search for that name, you'll find variations of that name with stock photos of different people. There are various scams with the name "Ashley," "Ashley S." "Ashley London".
Just be careful!

This demonstrates again the dangers of asking for reviews online rather than wait for spontaneous reviews for your bookIs) from readers who bought them. Unsollicited offers for reviewing your book(s), with you providing a copy, is equally fraught with danger and will mostly attract fraudsters to you. BE PATIENT AND WAIT FOR TIME TO BRING YOU REVIEWS FOR YOUR BOOKS. DON'T ASK FOR REVIEWS AND DO NOT RESPOND TO UNSOLLICITED REQUESTS/OFFERS.

Michel wrote: "This demonstrates again the dangers of asking for reviews online rather than wait for spontaneous reviews for your bookIs) from readers who bought them. Unsollicited offers for reviewing your book(..."

Michel, I totally agree. I published my last book in 2016 (a vegan restaurant guide), and the scam Email was sent to an old Email-address, which I don't even actively use anymore. I have never asked for reviews, and I also think that's the wrong approach to marketing self-published books. But this is something I have noticed on Goodreads: Far too many self-publishing authors are offering to swap reviews for their books. I don't think that leads to much success, but this seems to be the only marketing effort that many self-publishing authors attempt. I'd love to get feedback from authors who have experience with review-swapping. Does it work?

Asking for unsolicited reviews may get you attacked and threatened to ruin your life. Goodreads doesn't seem to care about these illegal threats. The trolls say they are from a foreign country so they can get away with it. I am convinced the emails are a robot sponsored by companies that pray on authors and make their living writing worthless reviews for money.

Contrary to what many novice authors believe, sales drive reviews, not the other way around.

Reviews and ratings are merely personal, and therefore, subjective opinions. One reader's Best book ever! may very well be another reader's Worst book ever!. This is the reason astute readers do not allow a review or rating to impact their purchasing choices one way or the other.

As Michael stressed in message 2, soliciting reviews usually attracts scammers, so don't! Focus instead upon continuously striving to improve upon your technical writing, narration, story line, promotional, and marketing skills.

Ingrid wrote: "I'd love to get feedback from authors who have experience with review-swapping."

Author review swaps violate Amazon’s TOS and many readers consider them unethical. Such activity can result in a number of sanctions from Amazon from just deleting the review, to prohibiting you from leaving any reviews and turning off reviews for your titles.

If you really want reviews for some reason, there are legitimate services that make your book available to readers such as NetGalley, HiddenGems and BookSprout.

If you want feedback on your book or story craft, then you get that before you publish from critique partners, alpha/beta readers and your editors.

Mellie wrote: "Ingrid wrote: "I'd love to get feedback from authors who have experience with review-swapping."

Author review swaps violate Amazon’s TOS and many readers consider them unethical. Such activity can..."

Hi Mellie,
I don't want reviews or to be contacted by people who offer to write reviews. I received unsolicited Emails, offering review services, and am trying to warn other writers about this scam. Today, I received another, similarly worded Email, from a different person, also from a Gmail-account. Clearly, I've landed on a spammer's list and am now being bombarded with these fraudulent, unsolicited Emails. My advice, again: don't do it. Don't try to improve your Amazon or Goodreads rankings by swapping reviews, or by accepting the services of such fraudsters.

I am, however, interested in other people's experiences, I think that this is a topic that should be discussed more widely amongst self-publishing authors. There are better ways to market self-published books than this.

Ingrid, those scammers can be very persistent indeed. One bunch, PageTurner, supposedly a publisher based in California (in reality in the Philippines) has been harrassing me with intermittent phone calls and emails for over two years, trying to convince me that they want to publish my books and also turn them into TV series. I don't answer their phone calls and delete their emails as soon as they arrive.

In contrast, my experience with Free-Ebooks.net was a very positive one. They publish for free online the ebooks of new or unknown authors at little to no cost to both authors and readers. Authors don't get money but that was not important to me, as I write as a hobby (I am a retired pensioner) and not to make money. The benefit for me was that, after 12 years with them and not having sollicited once a review from anyone, my ebooks have now accummulated over 150,000 downloads, plus hundreds of readers ratings and reviews, and I made many new friends among my readers around the World (which was one of the things I was looking for). It also apparently helped attract to me the unhealthy attention of the fraudsters at PageTurner (through no fault of Free-Ebooks.net). However, if I ever decided to try to publish my ebooks through a traditional publisher, I can now use the name I made for myself via Free-Ebooks.net. I thus strongly counsel that site to new authors who would want to gain some recognition. However, again, patience is the key.

Michel wrote: "Ingrid, those scammers can be very persistent indeed. One bunch, PageTurner, supposedly a publisher based in California (in reality in the Philippines) has been harrassing me with intermittent phon..."

Hi Michel,
Thank you for this very valuable feedback. I never even heard of "Free-Ebooks.net," but will check out their website. This is exactly the kind of feedback I hoped to get. Congratulations on your success!

This is the newest Email I got, I'm now being threatened, and this is via Goodreads questions. Here it is, from someone named Daniel:
"Ingrid WE GOT A COPY OF YOUR BOOK AND YOUR PERSONAL DETAILS. TOMORROW WE ARE GOING TO UPLOAD IT ON PIRATE WEBSITES AND TRADE YOUR PERSONAL DETAILS WITH MARKETERS, FRAUDSTERS AND SCAMMERS. WE DON'T LIVE IN YOUR COUNTRY SO YOUR LAWS CAN'T TOUCH US. TO STOP US, EITHER BUY OUR REVIEW OFFERS WITHIN THE NEXT 24 HOURS AND PAY US SOME MONEY, OR LEAVE THIS SITE WITHIN THAT TIME FRAME?"

I am , of course, going to report this threat to Goodreads, but wow. Does anybody else get threats like this?

Ingrid wrote: "This is the newest Email I got, I'm now being threatened, and this is via Goodreads questions. Here it is, from someone named Daniel:
"Ingrid WE GOT A COPY OF YOUR BOOK AND YOUR PERSONAL DETAILS. ..."

The more I think about this threat, the more I think that this is actually a case for the FBI. This is an attempt at extortion. It's quite extraordinary, really. Since this threat was communicated to me through the Goodreads website, I do expect the IT team to help identify this user. But I will report this extortion attempt to the FBI. Also, Goodreads belongs to Amazon, and both companies have an obligation to protect users of this site. It's quite extraordinary that I am receiving threats via the Goodreads site.

Hugh wrote: "Ingrid wrote: "I'd love to get feedback from authors who have experience with review-swapping. Does it work?"

I came to Goodreads to ask for review swaps as a last resort. I didn't realize initial..."

Hi Hugh,
Thanks for your interesting reply in regard to your book sales!

In regards to the threats that I'm receiving (and you are receiving similar review-scam Emails, very interesting) -- I have a blog/website, and on this website I list an Email address as a contact option, which I don't actively use for anything else.

I am aware that this Email address will eventually be used by spammers. That's what is happening now. The spammers are threatening to sell that contact information to other spammers and marketers. I'll just delete it, and create another Email address for my website...which I also won't actively use. That's what it's for...the spammers.

I've already received more spam Emails which offer reviews for payment, from different gmail accounts. For now, I'll just block the senders, I'm sure I'll receive a few more "offers."

But it would be very easy for me to just delete that particular Email address, which the fraudsters use, and list another one on my website. It's happened before, and it will happen again...over and over and over again...that's why I have different Email accounts. And that's why I'm fairly relaxed about the spammer's threat to sell my contact information.

But the extortion threats, which were addressed to me via the Goodreads site, need to be dealt with. Goodreads should be a safe site, and the Goodreads IT team must take action. I've already contacted them. And I will contact the FBI.

As for the specific threat to steal my book and upload it illegally onto various sites...it was published in 2016, it's a vegan restaurant guide for Vienna, Austria, and many vegetarian restaurants in Vienna have since closed. Much of the information in my book is outdated, which is why I'm no longer selling it online. I already have and continue to make some of the book's content available for free on my website. So I'm very relaxed about the threat to steal my book.

But other authors are in different situations, and for them the threat to steal copyrighted content would be very serious. I think this really is a case that should be taken seriously, and we - the authors who use Goodreads - should shine a very bright light on this issue. It just won't do that we are being threatend with copyright theft and extortion on this site. I'm also working on a new book, so this is an issue that will be of concern to me in the future.

I became a member of Goodreads in November, 2013. The primary reason being to share my opinion of books read and consider recommendations from fellow members

The sceondary reason was to post information pertaining to my one and only published novel which was commercially available from Aug. 9, 2011 through Dec. 31, 2016 within the appropriate discussion groups. At no time did I ever request a review.

Although not commercially successful, during the 5 1/2 years of availability, 1,029 units (485 paperback - 480 E-Book - 36 Audio Book on CD - 28 Audio Download) were sold. Total after-tax royalties paid to me totalled $2,358.34 (pre-tax royalties totalled $2,995.09).

If someone wishes to obtain a copy of your work they will. If they don't, they won't. Soliciting reveiws or constantly promoting your work within discussion groups other than those designated for such activity will not help and may even hurt your objective. For whatever reason, most avid readers choose to never post a rating or review.

Very few novice authors ever achieve commercial success or even notoriety within this extremely competitive field. That said; some have. There is no reason why you may not eventually become one of them. I wish you success.

Jim wrote: "I became a member of Goodreads in November, 2013. The primary reason being to share my opinion of books read and consider recommendations from fellow members

The sceondary reason was to post info..."

Well done, Jim! I totally agree with your assessment.
I have bought several self-published books over the years - some bad, some good - , and never read any reader's reviews before I bought them. I was interested in the subject matter, and then read the paratexts published by the writers about their books. That's it really, that's all it took for me to make a buying decision. And I don't care about star-ratings, if I'm interested in a book.

May I ask why you are no longer selling your novel?

Robert wrote: "It's the trolling I can't stand. I get it every week. Here's the latest heartfelt missive received today

message 45: by Vivian5 hours, 59 min ago
Vivian White
Robert WE GOT A COPY OF YOUR BOOK (TH..."


Hi, Robert!
I received exactly the same text message. The Goodreads IT-team/management of the company needs to get involved. We are being threatened while using this site. That is a criminal matter, it's not trivial.
Any other authors who received this threat, or a similar threat?

Robert wrote: "Thank Ingrid. They seem to be very complacent about this."

Robert wrote: "Thank Ingrid. They seem to be very complacent about this."

Ingrid wrote: "This is the newest Email I got, I'm now being threatened, and this is via Goodreads questions. Here it is, from someone named Daniel:
"Ingrid WE GOT A COPY OF YOUR BOOK AND YOUR PERSONAL DETAILS. ..."

Ingrid wrote: "Michel wrote: "Ingrid, those scammers can be very persistent indeed. One bunch, PageTurner, supposedly a publisher based in California (in reality in the Philippines) has been harrassing me with in..."

I received exactly the same scam. Goodreads/Amazon needs to get on top of this.

Karen wrote: "Robert wrote: "Thank Ingrid. They seem to be very complacent about this."

Robert wrote: "Thank Ingrid. They seem to be very complacent about this."

Ingrid wrote: "This is the newest Email I got, ..."

Yes, Karen, they do need to take action. I have contacted them by Email as well, and they did delete the fraudulent accounts of those people who threatened me (and Robert, and you), but I made it clear to them that they need to do much more. They need to PUBLICLY and very VOCALLY take action against people who threaten authors on Goodreads, and they need to involve law enforcement.

Authors are being threatened with extortion, theft of their copyrighted work, theft of their personal data -- all that is serious, and requires action by the Goodreads management team, not just the involvement of customer service employees.

Oh, the irony: Goodreads makes it clear that authors are forbidden to buy reviews, and then there are people here on the Goodreads site who threaten authors, if they don't buy reviews. Goodreads management and law enforcement need to get involved.

Ingrid wrote: "Jim wrote: "I became a member of Goodreads in November, 2013. The primary reason being to share my opinion of books read and consider recommendations from fellow members

The sceondary reason was ..."

Ingrid, in response to your question (message 14) as to why my one and only novel is no longer for sale commercially, I offer the following information.

The publisher filed for bankruptcy and went out of business on December 31, 2016. Perhaps from signing too many novice authors like myself.

The E-Book, Audio Book on CD, and Audio Download formats are no longer available; however, used copies of the Paper Back format are still available for sale on Amazon for $4.95. Since I already received the royalties when sold originally, I no longer am entitled to further compensation.

It took me 14 months to produce what I felt was a polished manuscript worthy of publication. It turned out that my work was neither polished nor ready for publication. 11 additional months working with and learning from a technical editor, conceptual editor, and layout design artist finally did produce the desired result.

The experience and self-satisfaction were well worth the time, effort, and resources expended. However, there are just too many other things to do, places to visit, people to meet and so little time.

Jim wrote: "The publisher filed for bankruptcy and went out of business on December 31, 2016.”

That’s a euphemistic way of saying the directors of Tate Publishing were sentenced to jail (but managed to get a suspended sentence) for embezzlement and scamming writers who used their vanity press.

https://writerbeware.blog/2017/05/04/...

Sadly most vanity press operations are pretty terrible and at best shifty. These days with self publishing so readily available, its foolish to even consider those operations.

Well, well, well...the threats are getting more personal and more serious. Here's the newest from someone named "David":
The criminals inserted my last name into the text and married me off to some guy named "Anton" (sorry, Anton, whoever you are!).

"I KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE BITCH. WILL DISTRIBUTE YOUR ADDRESS TO THIEVES AND CRIMINALS IF YOU DON'T LEAVE GR BY TOMORROW - SO ENTIRE HAUNOLD FAMILY GETS ROBBED AND CHOPPED. YOU ARE USING THIS SITE WITHOUT PAYING ME SO YOU DESERVE NO LESS. CALL THE FBI CIA AND FTC WHOEVER THE FUCK YOUR ASSHOLE HUSBAND ANTON CAN AFFORD AND LET ME SEE WHAT THE FUCK THEY CAN DO TO ME BITCH? I KNOW SOME VERY NICE FRIENDS IN VIENNA WHO CAN HELP"

Ingrid wrote: "Well, well, well...the threats are getting more personal and more serious. Here's the newest from someone named "David":
The criminals inserted my last name into the text and married me off to some..."


Please know that I have now contacted the FBI, and filed a cyber crime complaint. I am also in contact with the Goodreads staff.

Richard wrote: "Ingrid wrote: "Michel wrote: "This demonstrates again the dangers of asking for reviews online rather than wait for spontaneous reviews for your bookIs) from readers who bought them. Unsollicited o..."

Hi Richard,
I don't think that what you did would count as review-swapping (that would be 2 or more authors writing favourable reviews for each other), and you didn't purchase dishonest reviews for a fee. You did what the publishing houses also do: you offered review copies to writers who you thought were relevant. There's nothing wrong with that, in my opinion. Not sure where Goodreads and Amazon draw the line, and what their rules allow/forbid in regard to reviews. There seems to be a lot of uncertainty on this issue.
Was it worth it? Do you think your sales improved because of the reviews? My personal opinion is that reviews by people who most readers don't know, won't make a difference in regard to purchasing decisions. So I'm interested in how it went, in regard to sales numbers.

Due to my recent experiences here on this site (I did not ask for reviews, just joined in a conversation), I am now being threatened with bodily harm, copyright theft, burglary, etc. and bombarded with spam: I didn't expect that purchasing-reviews-for-a-fee is a huge organized crime-mafia style racket. That was unexpected. Selling reviews to self-publishing authors must be big business, if the criminals think it's worth threatening writers who don't purchase reviews, and speak out against it.

Ingrid wrote: "Richard wrote: "Ingrid wrote: "Michel wrote: "This demonstrates again the dangers of asking for reviews online rather than wait for spontaneous reviews for your bookIs) from readers who bought them..."

Hi Ingrid,

Thank you so much for clarifying this for me. I didn't understand what review/swapping was.

Although the honest reviews for my book The Koi and the Frog were all five stars, I don't think it had an effect on sales. To be honest, the sales have been disappointing, but that could be for various reasons (metadata, marketing etc.).

I wish you all the best.

Robert wrote: "Ingrid wrote: "Well, well, well...the threats are getting more personal and more serious. Here's the newest from someone named "David":
The criminals inserted my last name into the text and married..."

I agree that the Goodreads moderators are not dealing adequately with threats. More threats have been voiced against me. I reported the accounts, and blocked the criminsals' comments. But Goodreads needs to do more against review scammers/organized crime here on the Goodreads platform.

Robert wrote: "I got another one:
A BASTARD SON SPAWNED BY AN ASSHOLE DRUNKARD BEGGAR FATHER AND A WHORE MOTHER, ROBERT BASTARD HAS TOO MUCH FREE TIME AS IS COMMON AMONG THE POOR AND DEPRAVED, TO SPAM GOODREADS W..."

What do you hope to achieve by showing the text of the threat you received, apart from scaring other authors into bending to such threats? And stop blaming the moderators for not acting on this: they are not GR paid staff and have little powers to act. Ignore and block those criminals and contact the authorities. Besides, you really believe that such low-life criminals have all the powers they claim to have? IGNORE THEM AND STOP PUBLICIZING THEIR THREATS!

Michel wrote: "Robert wrote: "I got another one:
A BASTARD SON SPAWNED BY AN ASSHOLE DRUNKARD BEGGAR FATHER AND A WHORE MOTHER, ROBERT BASTARD HAS TOO MUCH FREE TIME AS IS COMMON AMONG THE POOR AND DEPRAVED, TO S..."

Hi Michael,
I think Robert ist right to post the threats he receives, as do. I There is a lack of awareness in regard to the "option" of paying for favourable reviews. I get the impression that many self-publishing authors are being contacted with offers to review their books. And when they write back, they are being asked for money. And when they don't want to pay, they are being harassed and threatened. I think that there needs to be much more awareness that asking for reviews cannot just get you kicked off the Goodreads and Amazon sites, but that it you'll end up being threatended over and over and over again. Robert is being targete for speaking out against review scams, and so am I. (I never asked for reviews.) I will continue to make the threats against me public, and I hope that other writers will continue to do the same. Thanks Robert, for letting others know that threats are being voiced against you, and for not backing down.!

Michel wrote: "Robert wrote: "I got another one:
A BASTARD SON SPAWNED BY AN ASSHOLE DRUNKARD BEGGAR FATHER AND A WHORE MOTHER, ROBERT BASTARD HAS TOO MUCH FREE TIME AS IS COMMON AMONG THE POOR AND DEPRAVED, TO S..."

Hi Michel,
You say that the moderators are not being GR staff and are not being paid -- I think that there's a misunderstanding. When I use the word "moderator," I do not meand the moderators of Groups. I do meand the paid Goodreads staff, the technical support staff whose job it is to delete fraudulent profiles. I believe Robert uses the term in a similar manner as I do.

Robert wrote: "I got another one:
A BASTARD SON SPAWNED BY AN ASSHOLE DRUNKARD BEGGAR FATHER AND A WHORE MOTHER, ROBERT BASTARD HAS TOO MUCH FREE TIME AS IS COMMON AMONG THE POOR AND DEPRAVED, TO SPAM GOODREADS W..."

Thank you Robert, for helping me shine a light on this issue of organized crime/extortion attempts/review-scams.

Ingrid wrote: "Robert wrote: "I got another one:
A BASTARD SON SPAWNED BY AN ASSHOLE DRUNKARD BEGGAR FATHER AND A WHORE MOTHER, ROBERT BASTARD HAS TOO MUCH FREE TIME AS IS COMMON AMONG THE POOR AND DEPRAVED, TO S..."

Okay, I see now that I misunderstood the way you and Robert use the term 'moderator'. For me, I knew only the group moderators, while I designated those taking care of frauds and scams 'technical staff'. I however do believe still that quoting those threat messages word for word is not a good idea, especially when no mention is made of what action the targetted person took, as in post #30.

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