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Fraud Alert

Fraud Alert

Please be aware that scammers continue to impersonate Hachette Book Group (HBG) employees and use an array of tactics to solicit money and personal information from authors and job seekers. These schemes often involve the fraudulent use of HBG’s company and imprint names to dupe people into applying for fake jobs and to trick authors into signing fake book publishing agreements.

Publishing Scams

Examples of Publishing Scams:

  • Impersonation of HBG Employees

Scammers frequently impersonate HBG employees in email, on social media, and on the phone to deceive authors into thinking that HBG is interested in publishing their manuscripts. They create fake publishing contracts, letters of interest, or other documents that include HBG’s name or logo or the names and logos of our imprints. They promise to pay a large advance after the author enters into a publishing agreement and pays a fee. Scammers pretend to be HBG publishers and editors and send emails from a fake address designed to look like HBG’s official email domain. Legitimate HBG emails will only come from an @hbgusa.com domain

Please note that the following are NOT legitimate HBG domains. They are examples of the many fake email domains scammers have used:

@hachettebookgroup-acquistion.com

@hachettebookgrouppublisher.com

@hachettebookleaders.com

@hatchettebook.com

@hachettebookgroup.info

@hachettebookgroup-usa.com

@hachettebookgroup.us

@hbgorg.com

@hachettebooksacquisition

@hachettebookgroup-uk.com

@hachettebooksgroups.com

@hachettebooks.co

@hbguk.com

@littlebrownc.com

This list is not exhaustive. Look out for email addresses that include variations of HBG’s company name or the names of its imprints.    

  • Fake Literary Agencies

Scammers pretending to be literary agents or providers of other literary services have contacted authors to make fraudulent contract offers under HBG’s name. They often promise a large advance, falsely claim that HBG has expressed interest in publishing the author’s manuscript, pretend to be working with HBG publishers, editors, or other employees, and create fake publishing agreements or letters of interest they falsely claim to be negotiating with HBG.    

The following are some of many have used these tactics and have no relationship with HBG: 

  • AG Literary
  • Impact Media Press
  • Leap Write Literary
  • PageTurner Press and Media
  • Silver Ink
  • Stellar Literary
  • The Literary Firm
  • Zenith Literary

For many more examples of fake literary agencies and similar scams, see https://writerbeware.blog/category/literary-agent-scams/

  • Book Club Scams

Scammers purporting to be from “book clubs” reach out to an author directly asking to include their book in a discussion or book club meeting. They ask the author for a small payment to cover “refreshments,” “administration,” promotion or other costs, typically in the $100 – 400 range. Sometimes they reference the title of the book or the name of an editor or publisher in their messages to make them seem legitimate. In other versions of this scam, they impersonate legitimate book clubs or pretend to be award organizers, readers’ associations, or reviewers and ask the author to pay a promotional or membership fee to participate in an event, an award ceremony, or a feature.

Recent examples include impersonations of real book clubs like the Book Huddle Club and the Arlington Books and Wine Club by scammers who use fake email addresses with misspellings of the real book club’s name and request a “spotlight fee” from authors.       

  • Author Impersonation Scams

Scammers are impersonating bestselling authors to scam other authors by expressing an interest in their work and striking up conversations over social media or email. After establishing a relationship, the scammers pretending to be bestselling authors may ask for personal information or offer to read, review, or provide a foreword for your book for a fee.

How To Tell If It’s A Scam:

Tips

  • We do not solicit author manuscripts. If you are approached out of the blue with an offer that sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is.
  • HBG will not ask for payment of a fee to review a manuscript or to enter into a publishing agreement with an author. Remember, the publisher pays the advance to the author in a publishing agreement, not the other way around. If you are asked to pay any kind of fee, consider it a major red flag. HBG does not conduct business in this way.
  • Scammers often use misspellings or other variations of HBG’s domain name and email address in their solicitations. Check the sender’s email address carefully for subtle differences such as extra letters or misspellings.
  • Be suspicious of any email that purports to be from an HBG employee and comes from a Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo, Outlook, AOL, or any other commercial email provider. HBG editors and publishers do not contact authors using personal email addresses.
  • If the email purports to be from an HBG employee, confirm that such person exists, works for the company, and has the job title used in the email. Scammers often send emails using these job titles that do not exist at HBG: Acquisition Director/Head of Acquisitions/Acquisitions Editor/Chief Acquisition Specialist/Chief Acquisition Officer/Executive Director of Book Acquisitions/Global Head for Acquisition/Submission Specialist/Literary Agent Coordinator
  • Does the sender/caller indicate a sense of urgency? Are they pressuring you to make a payment immediately or risk losing the opportunity? Did they initially contact you unexpectedly? Do they tell you not to contact HBG directly? If you ask them to send you an email from their HBG email address, do they give you an excuse for why they can’t? All of these are telltale signs it’s a scam.
  • Trust your gut. If you are suspicious of the sender, do not click on any links or open attachments, as many scams include fake forms or payment links that can steal your information or install malware. Do not send payment or banking details. We encourage you to stop responding to the scammer and to report the scam to law enforcement.

Resources

Job Recruitment Scams

Scammers have sent messages posing as Hachette Book Group (HBG) representatives to trick people into believing they are interviewing and hiring job candidates or contracting freelance work on HBG’s behalf. These emails, which sometimes use HBG’s logo or include fake employment letters, are often sent from email addresses that closely resemble HBG’s.

Examples of Job Recruitment Scams:

  • A scammer registers a domain name that looks almost exactly like Hachette’s except for one additional letter. They pose as Hachette HR and begin sending emails from the fake domain.  They interview candidates on video chat, send a fake employment letter using Hachette’s company name and logo, and say that as part of the onboarding process you need to send them your bank account info or pay a fee, such as for equipment or software that will supposedly be needed for you to work from home.
  • You see a job posting for a translator on a freelance site like Upwork, PeoplePerHour, or Fiverr. You apply and are directed to contact someone on Telegram about the project. You translate 20 pages and when you complete the job you’re told that you will need to pay “a payment processing fee” before you can be compensated. They send you a fraudulent invoice that purports to be from an HBG imprint to try to make it seem legitimate.

How To Tell If It’s A Job Recruitment Scam:

Tips

  • HBG does not offer freelance jobs on social media and does not ask freelancers to communicate via text or messenger apps like Telegram or WhatsApp, or personal email accounts. If you are contacted about freelance work in this way by someone you don’t know, be immediately suspicious and do not click on any links.
  • Pay close attention to misspellings in the sender’s email address and in the job posting. Verify job postings by checking the jobs listed on the Careers Page of HBG’s website.
  • If the job offer seems too good to be true (e.g. – $5,000 for a few hours of translation, retyping, or proofreading work), it’s highly likely to be a scam. 
  • If you are asked for sensitive personal information related to bank accounts or passwords, or if you are pressured to pay any kind of fee, such as for bank processing or the purchase of equipment, consider it a scam and do not send money.
  • If you believe you have been the victim of a scam, we encourage you to stop communicating with the scammer, alert the platform where you communicated, and report the scam to law enforcement.

Resources