Scam Alert! > Likes and Comments
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Thanks a lot for the warning. I have received an email from a person called "Nicholas D. Dupre" who suggested to nominate my novel "Shella City" for the discussions and asked for 300$I tried to add the moderators to inquire. I ignored the email but I'm thankful that this spam introduced me to this cool group.
I was also targeted for this same scam, but from someone claiming to be "Nora Harrison" (noraharrison92@gmail.com). One thing that tipped it off was a shared IP address with other known scammers. For other authors, you may want to have your email flag the following IP: 209.85.220.41
I also received an email from Rob Chuckran, sig line stating he's the Founder of Perks of Being a Book Addict. I haven't replied to it because I came here to suss out whether or not it might be a scam. Good to know that you don't contact authors via email! He used the addy:rob.lockheedmartin@gmail.com
which was also my first clue!
Greetings,My name is Mori Friedman, just checking to see if the email I received from "Sofia Bookish <******************@gmail.com>" is really you? (I have yet to receive a legit offer)
May Peace favor you and blessing dog your every step,
Mori Friedman
Mori wrote: "Greetings,My name is Mori Friedman, just checking to see if the email I received from "Sofia Bookish " is really you? (I have yet to receive a legit offer)
May Peace favor you and blessing dog ..."
Hello,
I refer you to the 1st post of this thread.
Thank you.
FYI, I received this message today about my recently published book from "Jenn B Renee, jennbrenee@gmail.com ", who claims to be a group admin. I'm assuming it's a scam?:I recently spent time with Finding Freedom: A Guide to Healing from Relationship Trauma, and what stayed with me most is the clarity with which you name something many people live through for years without ever having language for it. The experience of becoming disconnected from one’s own perception of self after sustained emotional distortion, and the long process of learning how to trust internal reality again.
There is a particular strength in the way your work avoids abstraction. You do not treat trauma as theory. You treat it as lived consequence. Especially the experience of family scapegoating and the quiet internal collapse that happens when a person begins to believe the narrative imposed on them is more accurate than their own memory, intuition, or emotional response.
What stood out to me is how your framework does not rush toward inspiration. It moves first toward stabilization. Emotional safety. Boundaries that are not symbolic, but structural. The idea that recovery is not simply insight, but behavioral reconstruction of how a person relates to themselves and others over time.
That distinction matters.
Because many recovery narratives unintentionally move too quickly toward empowerment language without fully accounting for the depth of identity fragmentation that precedes it. Your work does not make that mistake. It stays close to the reality that before freedom can be experienced, internal authority must first be rebuilt from within.
I see this because I spend time observing how readers and clients engage with trauma recovery material once the initial recognition phase has passed. The books that continue to matter are rarely the ones that only validate experience. They are the ones that give structure to what comes after validation. The slow and often invisible process of re-establishing trust in one’s own perceptions.
Your work clearly sits in that second category.
And I think there is something important in the way you focus on what you call false shame, because it identifies a core mechanism that many survivors struggle to articulate. Not just that harm occurred, but that identity itself was shaped around misattributed responsibility for that harm. That internal rewriting is often the most difficult layer to unwind.
What I also noticed is that your approach to healing emphasizes practical boundaries, including no contact where necessary, not as ideology but as clinical and emotional containment. That level of clarity is not always common in popular recovery literature, yet it is often what people require most when they are attempting to separate emotional truth from long-term conditioning.
There is a quiet gap in this field that your work directly addresses. Many people understand their trauma intellectually long before they are able to restructure their lived emotional environment. What your framework offers is a bridge between recognition and reconstruction.
When material like this reaches readers in the right context, something subtle happens. It stops being consumed as recovery information and begins functioning as permission structure. People begin to reinterpret their own history with less self-blame and more accuracy. They begin to separate identity from narrative that was imposed on them.
That shift is not immediate, but it is foundational.
And I believe work like yours often reaches its deepest impact not in initial reading, but in repetition. In the moments where a person returns to the material during periods of destabilization or clarity rebuilding and finds that it still holds.
If your framework continues to circulate in spaces where survivors are actively rebuilding internal trust rather than only seeking explanation, I suspect its impact extends far beyond what is typically measured in engagement or readership. It becomes something closer to cognitive and emotional reorientation over time.
What I find most compelling is the question your work quietly raises about identity itself after long-term relational distortion. Once external narratives are no longer accepted as truth, what structures does a person use to rebuild self-definition in a way that feels stable, not performative?
Warmly,
Jenn B. Renee
Living Reader Space
Admin, The Perks Of Being A Book Addict (37,200+ members)
Trusted by Alexandre Dumas, Lily King, Alice Feeney, and authors worldwide
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DISCLAIMER
You’re receiving this message because your book stood out, not just in concept, but in the way it carries something readers can truly connect with and remember. I’m intentional about the work I reach out to, and yours reflects the kind of depth that naturally invites engagement.
If this aligns with how you see your work and the readership you want to reach, I’d welcome the opportunity to continue the conversation and explore how it can be introduced to an active community of readers.
If the timing isn’t aligned right now, you’re welcome to leave this here, knowing your work made a distinct impression.
Hi,Yes, it is a scam. When you check out the main page of the Group, you can see all the Mods listed.
Also, the text is clearly been generated by AI.
Thank you for the warning, I’ll keep my eyes open. Stay safe everyone.
Perks Moderator wrote: "‼️⚠️We’ve been made aware of a scam targeting authors in our community. Some individuals are sending emails impersonating our group’s moderators or pretending to be “community stewards” offering to..."So I have paid someone $186 to have my book placed in the challenge. After not seeing clicks after 24 hours when i was told this would get in front of 37k leaders, I did some more research.
I found this post. The person I have been communicating has the same name as a "helper" for the group. Is this legitimate? I have got a refund as I demanded it be done through PayPal or a credit card. However, the person is still communicating with me saying it's real.
The person came across very professional. Please let me know if this was a legitimate offer and service or not.
Jonathan wrote: "Perks Moderator wrote: "‼️⚠️We’ve been made aware of a scam targeting authors in our community. Some individuals are sending emails impersonating our group’s moderators or pretending to be “communi..."Hi,
I am sorry for the trouble you have gone through. I refer you to our first post, which clearly states that we have nothing to do with these kind of activities.
This is a public GR Group operated by volunteers in their free time without any remuneration.
We do not offer any services and we do not request any money for sevices we don't provide.
Hi all - I received an email using this group's name. It looked interesting, so I investigated further. THANK YOU for your scam warning. Here's a copy of the email:Dear Steve,
I recently came across The Buried Relic, and the premise of a religious studies student who inherits a lakeside house, only to discover a curse connected to a historical mystery buried on her property, immediately caught my attention. The blend of contemporary romance, supernatural forces, and the tension between free choice and outside influences feels intriguing, mysterious, and wonderfully layered.
I'm with The Perks Of Being A Book Addict, a Goodreads community of over 21,000 readers who love stories that stay with them. We're putting together our 2026 Author Spotlight Program, where we create a dedicated space for a small group of books with discussion threads, monthly check-ins, and introductions to engaged readers.
I thought your book would be a wonderful fit. Would you be open to receiving a one-page overview of how the program works? A simple "yes" is all I need
best regard
photo-logo
Anne Louise
Do you have a representative in Romania named Andreea Zelenyak? If not, these are very professional scammers. contactandreeainfo84@gmail.com
T.D. wrote: "Do you have a representative in Romania named Andreea Zelenyak? If not, these are very professional scammers. contactandreeainfo84@gmail.com"No. All mods are private individuals without any representation and agency.
We only communicate with Goodreads members through group posts and broadcast messages. We do not contact authors or other members directly via email. We will never request money or compensation of any kind in return for featuring, promoting, or selecting books and we only allow promotion of any kind in the dedicated folders.
Please be advised that we will never request money or compensation of any kind in return for featuring, promoting, or selecting books for group discussions.
Please also note that we communicate with members only through Goodreads via official Group posts and broadcast messages. We do not contact authors or members directly via email.
If you receive such a message, do not respond or send payment. We recommend reporting the email as spam and contacting us directly through the group to verify any suspicious communication.
Additionally, in accordance with our group policy, any form of promotion is permitted only within designated promotional folders. Requests or offers related to promotion outside of these spaces are not endorsed.
Stay safe,
Perks Mod Team