What Really Happens When Your Kids’ Friends Take Over the House? You Won’t Believe the Stories!
Ever wonder how fast a single scam can multiply online? It’s like the digital version of whack-a-mole—shut down one shady site, and three more pop up, wearing identical masks but with different addresses. We’ve been shouting from the rooftops about these publishing scammers for a good while now, tracking their antics as they grow more audacious and inventive. But it’s not just the literary world falling prey. Just the other night, while hanging out with a couple of my sons’ friends, stories flowed about heartbreak and devastation caused by con artists spinning webs of fake romance and empty promises. The line between reality and digital fantasy blurs, leaving folks entranced enough to fork over fortunes to… no one. The big question: How desperate does one have to be—for attention, for connection—to get caught in a snare that’s as cold and mechanical as an AI chatbot posing as true love? Addiction to illusion isn’t just tragic; it’s epidemic. And while we teach our kids never to send money to a phantom lover, outside the family circle, many suffer in silence, too ashamed to cry fraud. If the online realm feels like a cesspool these days, let’s at least learn the edges before we dive in. LEARN MORE
As you all know, we’ve been exposing scammers in the publishing industry for quite some time now. And, the problem is only getting worse. As soon as one site gets shut down, three more almost identical ones pop up under different domain names. The first two WritersWeekly podcasts we recorded are on that topic (examples, how to spot the scammers, etc.) and they are, by far, our most popular episodes.
