I’m used to attempts of fraud on Facebook where all you need to do is click on a site and you will win an iPad, complete set of tools, receive a package that is being attempted to be sent to you or hundreds of other tempting offers.

Of course, by trial and error I’ve discovered they are all attempts to get something from you. Be it access to your passwords or gaining the ability to have free rein of your computer.

My only comment to them “is get a life!” 🙁

Now I am sure most of you are aware that I am a published author and you are probably assuming published authors would certainly be free of fraudulent attempts on their copyrighted works.

Well think again fraud experts!

Everyday I am receiving phone calls and emails from unknown solicitors who suggest I let their publishing company republish my book. They will put a new front cover on that will increase the chances of Amazon sales because of the attractiveness of the awesome new cover.

They have a marketing scheme that will jump start my sluggish Amazon sales and have the sales approach best seller status.

The offers are tempting and what author wouldn’t want to increase the sales of one’s book? The problem is determining which calls are honest and which calls are fraud.

So what if I make the decision to send them a $1000 to get involved in their marketing plan that, for sure, will jump start my book sales?

Weeks go by and my book sales don’t jump.

Did I just get scammed or was my book not attractive enough, market plan or no market plan?

The difficult thing is that there are serious companies trying to improve and help market your books and then there are the frauds.

How do you tell the difference?

My latest scamming friend called me this week and he was exuberant when I answered as he said he had been calling me for weeks and only connected with my voice mail.

Normally since I have caller I.D. I don’t answer unfamiliar phone numbers so this caller was right, I was a difficult person to get a hold of on the phone.

But every now and then I will answer the call just to see what the caller has to offer, always with the hope that it may be a legit and honestly interested publishing company.

If it is a scam there are certain signs to listen for. The caller will have a thick accent indicating they are probably calling from the Philppines or other countries outside the U. S.

Also listen for voices in the background. That usually means the caller is in a big calling room filled with dozens of similar people attempting to convince authors like myself to invest in their book marketing schemes.

Well, my latest book scammer said his name was Jaun and he was so excited about my book “Nature’s Rhyming Riddles” and its potential to be picked up by the film industry and have it made into a movie.

Now those of you familiar with “Nature’s Rhyming Riddles” may be as puzzled as me as to how a book of rhymes could possibly be developed into a movie or cartoon for kids?

But as our conversation continued Jaun began referring to the potential cartoon as “Nature’s Christmas Story” which was the first online book I had published back in 2008. (Jaun needed to polish his presentation before taking it on the road as he obviously had gotten the two book titles confused.) 🙂

Since I have often thought Nature’s Christmas Story would make a wonderful Christmas cartoon possibly even putting Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer into second place I thought it would be worth the visit with Jaun to see what his plan would be.

That turned out to be a terrible decision! 🙁 You see Jaun was the kind of guy who didn’t understand the word ‘No!’)

We did agree that he could call me the next day so he could hear my final decision.

So the next day Jaun was very prompt and called me again. After some more discussion I told him I was sorry, but I would not be sending him the $1500 which would be my contribution to him so that he could go in search of a movie producer willing to invest in making “Nature’s Christmas Story” into a cartoon.

Of course he assured me that his company would be providing an additional $7000 to combine with my $1500 to enable him to contact twenty-five movie producers and convince them that “Nature’s Christmas Story” could be the next “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”.

I firmly declined and I believe as I was placing the phone in the receiver Jaun was still sputtering away not willing to settle for a no.

Jaun did not take the no very well. In fact he kept calling me back that whole day. Sometimes his calls were just minutes apart!

I was afraid Jaun was having a nervous breakdown.

Actually, if he didn’t quit calling every few minutes shortly it would be me having that nervous breakdown! 🙁

Thankfully the calls finally ceased.

Well, guess what? Thinking the possible cartoon development had been clearly turned down this morning bright and early the phone rang and the caller I.D. indicated Jaun was back!

I picked up the phone and in my firmest voice told Jaun to take a hike!

The calls have ended and somewhere in the Philippines a depressed Jaun is slouched at a local bar sucking on a bottle of Tequila attempting to capture that worm at the bottom of the bottle. 🙁

I might grab a cold Coca-Cola later today and celebrate that my firm ‘no’ was successful and ponder the possibility that the title of my next book will be “Scamming the Scammer”. 🙂

Until next time.