Tips from the ABA: Responding to Spam Invites

A particularly pernicious scam targeting authors is making the rounds in the form of fake "invitations" from book clubs, book festival organizations, and bookstores. Several bookstores in SIBA territory have reported being contacted by authors who were supposedly invited to speak at a store event. The invitations are well-written, sound plausible, sometimes ask for money, and can potentially damage relationships between bookstores and authors.

If you are a recipient, the best defense against such scams is, first and foremost, never respond directly to the email. Instead, contact the bookstore or organization directly to confirm the validity of the invitation. If it is not valid, here are steps the ABA recommends both you and the bookstore take:

• Document everything. Take screenshots. Save everything.
• Report the email to Gmail (ot whichever email service they used)
• Report to the FBI, IC# at this link:  https://complaint.ic3.gov/ if you lost money
• Report to the FTC
• Report to Authors Guild so they can warn authors
• Post a fraud alert on your social media and homepage
• Send a mass email to your contact list.

Also, subscribe to the ABA's newsletter, Bookselling This Week, which regularly posts scam and fraud alerts as new ones appear.