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FYI - Goodreads Giveaways being used to Farm Addresses ***ALL MEMBERS PLEASE READ***
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Once again something wonderful spoiled by a few bad apples. I don't enter giveaways myself, but I believe that 99% of the writers offering their books are simply doing that--offering their books.
Thanks for the info.I've actually stopped entering them anyway.
I do like perusing them to find interesting reads...
SMH
I'm an indie author and I've done a giveaway for my book before. I'd have to say this is a really idiotic way for then to farm addresses. The only addresses you get are for the people who win and in that case you get only the address they list and a link to their GR account at best. I'm not even sure how one could get an IP address out of that information unless the user gave it to you at some point.
Amanda, MrsJ's talking about two different things: The giveaways program provides authors with real address info and a link to the reviewer's GR profile. Carufel and his cronies are talking about compiling lists of the addresses they've acquired this way. The IP addresses could be harvested via the blog, not the giveaways program.
...and this is why we can't have nice things...I love my goodreads groups and my goodreads authors. It just breaks my little ol' bibliophile heart to see these people abuse our happy-fun-book-place.
Ditto what Lucinda said. This will be another example of the 1% ruining it for everyone else.
Amanda wrote: "Amanda Lyons (AmandaMLyons) | 504 comments I'm an indie author and I've done a giveaway for my book before. I'd have to say this is a really idiotic way for then to farm addresses. The only addresses you get are for the people who win and in that case you get only the address they list and a link to their GR account at best. I'm not even sure how one could get an IP address out of that information unless the user gave it to you at some point. "Becky is correct. Two different things happening.
The authors are compiling address lists via the giveaway system.
The author in question is ALSO harvesting IP address via comments and visits to his personal blog.
Carufel has also posted in numerous places that he is looking for a hacker that will help him track down people he does not like. Goal? I'm clueless but I do know he has threaten to post full names, addresses and photos of peoples homes.
Goodreads now depresses me. Seriously.
But Lucinda has it: This is why we can't have nice things.:(
I've done a couple of giveaways myself. I make a point of writing down any mailing addresses, but discarding them once I get word that the book arrived, as well as deleting the original email with the address.That said, there is no way to completely guard against jerks.
I have been unfortunate enough to cross paths with Carufel. Banned him from a facebook group of mine. He also got banned from many others I know of. I see some things do not change.
Terry wrote: "I have been unfortunate enough to cross paths with Carufel. Banned him from a facebook group of mine. He also got banned from many others I know of. I see some things do not change."Yes. *sigh*
Well, jerks certainly don't change, no matter what level of technology we have access to.
He has a serious HATE for Amazon. I mean, some us might dislike some of the things they do, but this guy thinks he will one day take Amazon down, and will go after anyone who voices ANY support for anything Amazon does. I've seen him stalk a few folks I know and even go so far as to hand out a bunch of 1 star reviews AND brag that it was in retaliation to disagreements on topics concerning Amazon. Just mentioned this post in my group and as one person said, and I quote, "RC is an exceedingly vile person."
Terry wrote: "He has a serious HATE for Amazon. I mean, some us might dislike some of the things they do, but this guy thinks he will one day take Amazon down, and will go after anyone who voices ANY support for..."Yes. I've seen some of the sewage the he spews.
And I don't understand how he can hate Amazon so much. They allow his books to be sold. There's a lot of places that would kick him to the curb. Especially as it seems that most of his stuff appears to be rebuttals about other people's opinions.
But I try to avoid nutters.
I posted this because I feel that RC is...so unstable as to be dangerous and I wanted to warn people.
Absolutely horrible, and it doesn't represent me or 99% of other authors who have a decent conduct.
I feel sorry for those who have been harassed by this/these individuals :S
I feel sorry for those who have been harassed by this/these individuals :S
Enter Goodreads Giveaways at Your OWN RISK
There are SOME authors using the Goodreads Giveaway program in order to farm reader/reviewer physical addresses for harassment purposes.
The [current] ringleader for this nefarious activity is Rick Carufel (author profile not claimed, Carufel has been banned by GR).
Sadly I do NOT have access to any other names of people participating in this activity.
Goodreads has been notified but says they will not intercede in any way until someone is harassed/attacked/addresses placed in public.
GR Thread here: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
Original Post:
GR Staff comment here:
See authors discuss here: http ://indie-publishing.blogspot.com/2013/09 /spinless-trolls-go-into-hiding-to-avoid.html <--This author also collects ISP addresses,etc. Please do not post any comments at this blog. If you do, you do so at your own risk.
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What I suggest: REMOVE your physical address from Goodreads. DO NOT enter Giveaways unless you trust the author/group. In fact, I suggest only entering giveaways for books published by LARGE Publishers [NEVER self-published]. Not necessarily the Big6 but still a pub that can control their artists.
Other than that, I would not enter GR giveaways. You are NOT protected. Goodreads will NOT do something until something happens.