This isn’t my usual topic for this blog. Although my life is filled with educating people about scams, I usually write about life events, personal thoughts or inspirations, and self-help here. However, today I need to write about the book scams on Facebook.
Many of you know I run a group on Facebook called Sleuths Deconstructing Scammers to educate about scams and how to recognize them and those who post them. A few months ago, I was made aware of sponsored ads on Facebook that were victimizing a lot of people. These were book scams.
I researched the ads and found multiple instances and many victims. The ads look innocent enough. They are always “do-it-yourself” and “self-help” books. These are popular books because nobody wants to pay someone else for something they can do themselves. I did a post about them at that time here.
However, it seems that the ads show books that do not exist. They are created for these ads with a software program. The “author”, Daniel Begum, charges about $20 for a set of three books. Some ads only show single books. The books never arrive. Downloads are offered, and I have no way of knowing what those downloads contain. Do they contain actual facts? Are they embedded with some kind of malware?
Daniel Begum has 2 Facebook pages (This one and this one ) that are posting book scams. Looking at the transparency section of the Facebook pages, they both show that they had different names to begin with. I have to wonder if these scams were run under a couple of different names until they got too many reports. I haven’t looked further into that at this time. I’m more concerned about getting the word out about the Daniel Begum scams.
If you are a reader, or if you are looking for self-help books on popular topics such as GLP-1 diets, Woodworking, Computer help, or almost anything, steer clear of any ads on Facebook. Many of his scams are targeted at senior citizens and “beginners”.
Some of the topics I’ve seen him use in these book scams are:
Windows 11 for Seniors
Kidney Disease, Renal Disease
Living Trusts and LLC
Sourdough Discard
Coin Collection
Diabetic Cookbooks
iPhone for Seniors
American Sign Language
Mediterranean Diets
Air Fryer Cookbook
Epoxy Resin Art
Natural Healing topics
Fatty Liver Diets
GLP-1 Diets
Woodworking
Amish Survival Manual
Tai Chi
Air Fryer and Keto cookbooks
Cricut
Survival Guides.
Canning and Preserving
100,000 Whys
Bible and Forbidden History
RV Camping, National Parks
Military Calisthenics
Home Fermenting Guide
A typical scam ad looks similar to these:
There are three websites that the scams lead to. My antivirus will not let me open atlas-library.com. It is blacklisted as possibly containing malware. (Which then leads me to believe that the downloads may contain some kind of malware that you are paying for!)
The other two websites that they lead to are: bookworldlibrary.com and prime-library.com. At this time, these are the only websites I am aware of that he uses. However, there easily could be others, or he could create a new one. There is some confusion about whether the URL is bookSworldlibrary.com or bookworldlibrary.com. Since there are 2 versions being reported, it is possible he shut down one and replaced it with the other. I am not able to open the one with the S.
Many people have reported that they attempted to dispute the charge, only to receive threatening letters from Daniel Begum. However, they have proven to be false threats intended to scare the victim out of reporting the scam. Paypal has NOT been good about refunding the purchase. Some victims say that he has forged documents claiming receipt of a digital copy, which invalidates the dispute. They say they have not received the digital copies.
They also have said that at no point were they told the actual books were “out of stock” or that they were only purchasing digital copies. Even if either of these were true, there is no doubt that the book scams are deceptive in their advertising, showing hardcover books.
These book scams have been reported on Trustpilot and BBB Scam Tracker. Many victims have commented on my educational post in my group. There isn’t enough warning out there about his well-run scam that is victimizing many. Some examples are shown below.
The website has a counter at the top, indicating that time is running out to purchase the books. This is a tactic used to strongly encourage victims to hurry up and buy the books before they can’t. Many scammers use this to dupe victims into action.
The scams are likely on other social media platforms as well, but I am only familiar with Facebook. Unfortunately, Facebook seems to be the most popular and the easiest place to scam people.
Something to remember —- It’s NOT safe to order anything from a Facebook ad anymore. Facebook allows scammers to buy ads, just like this one has done. He has two profiles, and one of them has about 650 ads running. If he can pay for that kind of advertising, how much is he taking in with the scams?
The scams are only about $20 each, but when you consider how many people lose that $20, the profits are staggering. A scammer doesn’t need to take large amounts. He just needs to get enough victims to give him small amounts.
Not enough people are being warned to avoid this scam. It looks innocent, which is why there are so many victims. And the topics chosen are popular. The targeted victims are gullible.
We need more awareness of this scam. It breaks my heart to read all the experiences of the victims of this crime. If you know of someone who reads a lot or loves self-help books, share this post with them. Give them the link to the post I’ve written up on Facebook.
If you’ve experienced these book scams, let me know in the comments, or you can email me at shell@thewriteempath.com.
I want to hear the stories. And I NEED to bring awareness. It’s time we stop his cash flow from innocent people.
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