Betrayed By a Trusted Author: How One Writer Turned a Shocking Scam Into a Master Plan for Revenge
So, I did my due diligence and – let’s cut to the chase – it was a scheme I’d never heard of. It was the “fellow-author” long game con. The scammers find an author with a new release and come at her, pretending to be famous writers who want nothing more than camaraderie…at first. The compliments are florid, they all but weep with excitement, and soon the new author learns that she’s lucky. The famous writer will catapult her to fame too, if she uses the services of their literary agent or book marketer. It’s all a scam, of course. Usually, the “agent” and the fake author are the same person. In this case, the real Per Petterson had probably never heard of me. He has now. I reported the ruse to the fraud department at Penguin Random House, his publisher, and they replied.
