Yesterday I got a phone message from “Jamie Brown” at Brokers AB, a “literary agency,” informing me that four major publishing companies wanted to buy my book for $250-400K. All Brokers AB wants in return is a 12% commission on the sale. Wow, how exciting! I googled Brokers AB, and learned they also do business as “WGA Publications,” and even have the audacity to list the Writers Guild of America website as part of their company. They are based in one of those “WeWork”-type shared offices in Oxnard, CA. I called them back today… and played along for a while before questioning their entire, idiotic scam. Here is the entirety of the phone call.
Great work on scammers
As I previously wrote, I’d been contacted by an “independent literary agent” who offered to rep one of my nonfiction books (which had been a trade best-seller in the 80s). I then got a Skype call from a… gentleman, who identified himself as an editor with “Simon and Schuster Books” and said he wanted to purchase rights with a $200,000+ advance. Both had strong, unidentifiable foreign accents. Now, it just happens that there is no “Simon and Schuster Books” — Simon and Schuster is an LLC with no such imprint… I keep getting random calls offering to rep “my book” but they almost always refer to that particular one, when probed, although a couple calls mentioned a professional book I published a few years ago, whose publisher keeps promoting it and for which there is no mass market. Scammers work hard!
I enjoyed this so much. I get a call weekly from someone, with a similar accent, wanting to send me a plastic Medicare card. All I have to do is provide my Medicare number. Today I took a queue from you. I kept them on the phone asking questions. They finally hung up. Thank you for the smile.
Oh my gosh! Please don’t stop sharing these phone calls, “Esther”!! One of the things that slays me is that none of the calls you’ve shared are from people with a decent grasp of the English language! It was so funny when she told you that she was located in Oxnard. You then asked her if that was is Northern CA or Southern CA. There was a pause. She knew she had a 50/50 chance. But, ding, ding, ding – she guessed Northern CA.
Great call Lee!
Take care
Friend of Mary Miles Minter
This was more fun than a barrel of Nigerian princes, Lee!
Brilliant, sir! Thank you on behalf of all civilized folks.
Thank you Lee, I got an email from Brokers AB, and I found your You Tube. I won’t be phoning them now. You saved me a lot of time and stress.
All I could do was laugh.. great work. I was also contacted by BrokersAB on a book I put out in 2011. Someone named Akisha Smith and the supposed executive director of Yucca Publishing tried to contact me. Number was private, they left no call back number so I immediately went to Scam Alert..haha
Thanks, Lee. Funny and informative.
They tried asking again for my father, who I’ve told them multiple times, died almost a year ago. They then tried the “Can you hear me” trick, to get me to say the word, “yes”. If I had said it, the recording would be manipulated by them, in order to give them permission to print my father’s book.
Why do you keep talking with them? Just hang up and block the number. I only talk to them when I want to record the conversations and expose their ridiculous scams.