Scams & Recommendations

Of late, and I’m sure you’re seeing it too, there are an increasing number of attempts to inappropriately separate one from one’s money. Which I understand, if they’re ethical. Often, they’re not. So here are some scams & recommendations associated thereto.

For one, it appears that everyone wants to loan me money. I get offers seemingly every day. Texts, emails, and perhaps the calls that I don’t see if they’re from someone I don’t know. And, at least, these are (presumably at least mostly) legit. That is, loaning money isn’t unknown. It’s just not a great deal. I’d far rather earn money than borrow it. So, no. Please, stop! They’re unsolicited, so they are spam. So, I do recommend blocking, reporting, etc.

Then there’re the actual scams. One that’s become ubiquitous of late are the ones for authors. Sure, I get the requests to translate to another language, for books for which I don’t own the copyright (c.f. my books w/ ATD). Talk to the publisher, man?!?!  The new one (always something new), is something about GoodReads and groups. The promise is that they’ll recommend the book to their group. For a fee, of course. There are glowing reflections on the book and how valuable it is. The clue for me is that sometimes it’s for a new, or relatively new, book. But I’ve also gotten it for books more than a decade old, already out of print, and available for free download. Yeah, I really want to boost sales of that! Don’t fall for it.

There more, of course. There’ve been the companies that want to promote my book at book fairs. For a fee, of course. No. I’ve left much of social media (I miss the folks, but I ethically can’t support what they’re doing), but stay on LinkedIn. However, increasingly I’m getting connection requests from folks not in L&D or associated fields. I’ve got canned responses that either welcome the connection, or ask why the reason to connect. The latter, of course, is for anyone not obviously in L&D. There’ve been folks who want to do tech dev, marketing, financial advisement, etc. And, of course, loans ;). Nope, don’t want the assistance of someone who contacts me cold. Heck, I’d do research if I didn’t know someone personally (and in most cases, I do).

So, caveat emptor. There are lots of folks who’re looking for revenue, and not all are scrupulous. Be curious, but also probably skeptical. That’s my overall approach to scams & recommendations. What’re your approaches?