Hello Fair Readers,

I hope you’ve had a wonderful and relaxing Christmas holiday so far!

I’m popping in with a few more Internet privacy and security tips to keep you safe in the New Year.

 

BookPlate Blues
One of our clients is going through an Internet security nightmare right now, and she hopes her misfortune can be used to protect others from going through the same thing.

Like many authors, our client posted an offer for free signed bookplates on her web site.  These book plates are a favorite amongst readers and a great way to add value and fun to an author site.

Unfortunately, the author signed her FULL name on these book plates, and now one of these book plates has been posted on an online forum crammed with hackers and thieves.

We’ve removed her book plate offer from her site, but that doesn’t remove her from danger.

Forgers, especially, love full signatures.  Whether they find them in your trash can, your online newsletter, your web site, or on a bookplate, they can use it to do little things like write $80,000 checks in your name.  (There goes the kids’ college fund).

My advice to our client was that from this point forward she consider just using her first initial and last name when signing book plates.  While this isn’t a huge deterrent against a focused forger, it is a start.

We also really, really recommend that authors don’t include their full signature on their web site or in their newsletter.

This may sound paranoid, but after working in the Internet industry this long, I’m no longer surprised by the levels hackers/forgers/phishers/swindlers will go to compromise authors’ personal data.

And that brings me to our second tip:

Beware BooksChristian.com’s Splash Page Offer

Many of our clients have been approached (read: harassed) by this company, and their latest “offer” has me so concerned, I feel a public warning is necessary.

BooksChristian is a Christianbook.com imitator, with a level of persistence equaled only by multi-level marketers and door-to-door salesmen. They continue to e-mail (pester) our clients over and over again, even after these clients have declined their services. They do not have good positioning in the search engines for important keywords. And few Christian readers even know about them. This past month, their site received only 78,000 hits, in comparison to Christianbook’s over 2 million hits.

Their latest “offer” involves e-mailing Christian authors to promote a splash page (which they design, and which links directly to their web site) that shows up when readers visit the author’s web site.

What they’re asking makes me see red.

1.)  Because they’re trying to recruit authors away from their design agencies- something I find morally reprehensible

2.)  Because they’re actually asking for access to/control of authors’ private web servers, domain names, and FTP details (which would be necessary to do what they need to do).

3.)  Because this “Exciting” splash page will actually drive visitors AWAY from the authors’ sites, and TO BooksChristian instead, and has the potential to wreak havoc with the authors’ search engine ranking.

They’re cloaking this snake oil salesmanship in offers of “free” design services, and promises of payouts, but this offer is to their benefit, and not to Christian authors, or to their readers.

As one of our bestselling author clients said (whose publisher fell for the BooksChristian pitch)  “I couldn’t wait to get that splash page off my site!!”

A legitimate company, (like Amazon or Christianbook) would never suggest such a ridiculous “offer”.  Just the legal liability alone would keep them from doing so.

A company with this kind of moral and business practices shouldn’t EVER be given access to, or control of, authors’ web usernames and passwords, or their inbound web site traffic.  They’re trying to hijack authors’ web sites, and make it look like a good deal.

Bottom line?  Friends don’t let friends get swindled by BooksChristian.   Please warn your writing friends about the real story behind this “offer”.

Stay safe out there, people.  Have a fantastic New Year, and in the meantime remember:

Sell your work…not your soul

Posted on December 30th, 2008 by admin
Filed under: Internet Privacy