Beta Reader Group discussion

As you’ve probably noticed, recently there has been a surge of spam and scam activity within our group. Certain individuals have been posting advertisements inappropriately across multiple folders, including the “Paid Services Offered” and “Authors Seeking FREE Betas” sections. They are invading our space (posting their advertisement in posts that belong to other members, even several times a day), and promoting their services under false pretenses.

Specifically, these scammers:

- Contact authors claiming to review the first three chapters, but the feedback is generated by AI, not by actual readers.
- Request testimonials and then direct you to Fiverr links requiring payment to leave reviews.
- Continue to ask for payments for reading or feedback, even in designated free service folders.

If you've had a negative experience with these scammers, please share your story here. Let’s work together to keep our group a safe and supportive space for genuine authors and beta readers.

These are the names and emails (as they share it in all their comments) of the offendants:

Hayley (digihayleyxdavid@gmail.com)
Ola / Sam (samhorla3@gmail.com)
Helen (helenyzmary@gmail.com)
Debbykaay (debbieekenth@gmail.com)
Benjamin (davideebenjamin@gmail.com) (constantly changing email accounts)
Royal (odutayoroyal@gmail.com)
Reader (readeryusiroh@gmail.com)
May (maryxsolomon@gmail.com)
Julie Catherine (sometimes goes by just Catherine) (damseyjulie@gmail.com)

This list is growing by the minute, as they can keep making new accounts, possibly to get away with their misconduct. I will keep updating this list if needed.

Thanks for this information on scammers, Olivia. Having this list will save us all time and frustration, at the least. I already see people on this list that I have seen operating frequently in other groups. I may even print it out for quick reference when it gets too long to remember.

Compiling this list takes effort and time, thanks again.

Thanks for posting this. I have been watching as this group is getting a little bit out of control with strange posts and even with supposed beta readers commenting on posts by authors looking for beta readers almost one year ago. Unfortunately these scammers give beta reading a bad name in the writing community.

Thanks for posting this. I moderate a few beta reading groups on another platform. May I share this information with those groups?

Kate wrote: "Thanks for posting this. I moderate a few beta reading groups on another platform. May I share this information with those groups?"

Hi Kate, please do. I appreciate you joining me in the efforts of stopping this harmful practices in this group and other groups alike.

Thanks for posting this. I had noticed an increase in things being posted in the wrong folder and was a little annoyed by it as I think it is confusing for newcomers and long time users alike.

As for everything else, this is damaging for beta readers and I would kindly ask that these individuals go elsewhere or better yet, stop all together.

Thanks,

Lisa

Olivia wrote: "These are the names and emails (as they share it in all their comments) of the offendants:

Hayley (digihayleyxdavid@gmail.com)
Ola / Sam (samhorla3@gmail.com)
Helen (helenyzmary@gmail.com)
Debbyka..."

Olivia wrote: "These are the names and emails (as they share it in all their comments) of the offendants:

Hayley (digihayleyxdavid@gmail.com)
Ola / Sam (samhorla3@gmail.com)
Helen (helenyzmary@gmail.com)
Debbyka..."

in
Have you notices most of these lead back to Fiverr accounts?

Bumping

Good job on creating this post. This problem needs to be brought to light.