Scam Type
Phishing Scam
Date Reported
2022-12-19 00:00:00
Victim Postal Code
84701
Total Dollars Lost
70000
Scam Description
I have written a children’s book that won an award, and several companies reach out to me quite often and say they want to market or buy my book rights, or market my book, but this company called and first started off by saying they worked with blind children and would I like to record my book for them. That tugged at my heartstrings, and I said yes. After that, they said they could help me market the book. After several months of paying for services, they provided me an “agent” because Penguin Random House (PRH) wanted to acquire my book. For the past few months, Jay has had me convinced that he was working with PRH to write up a contract and has been very convincing, answering all of my many questions in a very believable way. He convinced me to spend upwards of $30,000 just the last few months on things that he said were required for the acquisition, but that in the end, I would be getting a $450,000 check from PRH for the rights of my book. My daughter did some investigation work and found out from the fraud department at PRH that he is an agent actor and that he was given a cease-and-desist order recently and that PRH never asks for money up front. All together I have spent 60-70 thousand dollars, some on credit card and some on debit, which I can’t get back.
