Goodreads Ransom Scam by Alina Leonova
Goodreads Ransom Scam And The Platform’s Astonishing Indifference
A number of authors are being attacked by scammers who first post multiple fake 1-star reviews and ratings on Goodreads and then demand ransom to take them down.
If you are not a book geek, you might not be familiar with Goodreads. They are ‘the largest site for readers and book recommendations’ as they claim on Twitter. They are, essentially, a social network built around books. People track their reading, write reviews, discuss books, etc.
A lot of folks have criticized Goodreads because the website is obsolete and unituitive and hasn’t been improved in years. It was also bought by Amazon several years ago, which is viewed by many as a conflict of interest. All of it is true, but despite that, it still has millions of users who create all the value the website provides. It has a vibrant community of book geeks, a wealth of reviews that have been gathered for over 10 years (!) and book lists for every taste and whim. I’ve found some amazing books there just asking people for recommendations, connected with other authors and had a lot of fun discussing books. Until…
I stumbled upon a thread that was initially about something else, but quickly turned into several authors complaining about falling victim to the same scam. Dozens of 1-star ratings and reviews appeared under their books at the same time. They were all one-liners from private accounts without photos and said things like ‘Full Misogyny’ (always capitalized and this exact wording :D), racism, sexism, religious bigotry, etc. A few days later, someone contacted the authors saying they noticed they had a lot of bad reviews and offered to fix that for a fee and provide good ratings.
No need to be a detective to see a criminal pattern here.
It got even more interesting when within the next day everyone on the thread was attacked by the same scammers, including me. It was the first time for some of us, while others just got hit again.
13 Responses
Reblogged this on Jeanne Owens, author.
Thank you I’m glad Alina wrote this… Trolls and Scammers are horrendous in there and now Amazon does Ratings…it can only get worse… 🙁
Thanks for sharing the warning. I remember seeing someone on Twitter, I think, recently complaining about something like this happening to him.
Reblogged this on Pattys World.
Thanks for posting this, I will share it widely.
I’m glad I found it and was able to share with everyone. Huge thanks go to Alina Leonova for writing it 🙂
Reblogged this on Chris The Story Reading Ape's Blog and commented:
AUTHORS – BE AWARE
Thanks Chris 🙂
Goodreads is aiding a criminal activity if they do nothing to prevent it from happening continually. I know it’s probably a difficult one for them. They can take down the reviews, and even kick those accounts posting them off the site, but how do they prevent them from returning under another alias? I don’t know enough to be able to say if they can discover if they are the same people, or even who they are. If they can do so, these criminals should be reported to the police.
This post has made me reconsider my involvement with Goodreads at all.
I don’t have much to do with Goodreads because I was informed it was full of Trolls… Though I do have an account. I wish something could be done about this. I feel sorry for anyone caught in the middle.
I think I even saw one of those books concerned … and I wondered why so extreme ratings only.
Thanks, now I know to look closer at the reviews.
I’m also glad Alina wrote about this… I’ve had books turned down for marketing due to reviews… (troll) so this goes to show we all need to keep our eyes open. Thanks for your comment. 🙂
The trolls have a go particularly at forum moderators who are authors. It took a while, but Goodreads did take them down after I flagged it for them, and may have followed it up.
I *think* most of the people that patrol that sort of thing are volunteers, so give them half a break. But the scam on top is ridiculous. Just flag those posts or messages and never pay people money unless you know them!