LinkedIn Scams

Alan Place - Children's Author

LinkedIn Verification

I am generally not recognised as a Children's Author, but I did write a couple of children's stories.

For several years, I was part of a charity group who wrote stories for children called The Peacock Writers.

I was approached on LinkedIn by a person "claiming" to be from a group of people looking for unknown talented writers, and artists. When this happens, I go into "safe" mode, why would someone wish to contact me about writing?

She asked for a sample of my work for group to examine for publication in an upcoming book they were publishing for children. At this stage, I was more than suspicious as few people know of my work with the charity, and I am not known as a children's writer.

Sensing the scam, I went along, in part, with it to see what was going on. I sent the lady the manuscript for Elfenmere, my children's book about the environment. I was not surprised when I was "ghosted," the term indicates when a person shows interest in your work, but does not reply to your reply.

I was not concerned about the loss of the ms, the eBook has been on sale for many years, and done nothing, much like the ms I sent to the "promoter" I think scammed me. A Sailor's Love is over a decade old, and has not sold, so I didn't see the loss of the manuscript as a loss.

Several other people have complained about this site "ghosting" people, and they are not the only site doing it.

I went through the LinkedIn Verification process for nothing; well almost nothing; my goal was to block payment for a service I won't require, which I did. Not that verification means a thing, the site doing the "ghosting" was verified; and I had a site which didn't have a profile image attempt to scam me later that week, so LinkedIn is no safer than any other site.