Tuesday, August 20, 2013

Guard Your Intellectual Property: Scammers, Bootlegers & Pirates (First Class now Number Books)

Day Laughs, Night Cries: Fifteen, has been captured by a writer’s worst nightmare: scammers, bootleggers, pirates, whatever you call them. I was shocked when I discovered that my book was probably a casualty. The site was at first named first-class download, now it has been changed to number books. http://numberbooks.loomhost.com/download-book-day-laughs-night-cries-fifteen-volume-1/

The website offers customers a range of products such as movies, games, and books for a nominal fee.  After paying, the customer can download the item of his or her choice. Although one unhappy customer reported: This site is a total SCAM... do not believe anything you see on their url. In fact you can search there for any thing you like and they will say they have it, but in fact they have nothing at all. you will not know this until they have taken your ...
I hope this is true and that they are only promoting my book.

I called a customer service number that the site provided and was told that the number was a third party.  I also sent an email with the title "Theft of Work"

      I ask that you cease all free downloads of my book Day Laughs, Night Cries: F...
Jul 19
https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif



https://mail.google.com/mail/u/0/images/cleardot.gif
Dear Consumer,

Thank you for contacting CCBill. We are a third-party billing company. We process payment for websites, we do not own or operate the websites that we bill for. If there is an issue regarding the content on the website, you will need to contact that website directly for assistance.

There are several grievances about the site and some are from unhappy customers who probably cannot go to their credit card companies or the police because they gave their credit card information to basically steal other people’s work.
http://www.scambook.com/company/view/36513/Firstclass-Download

I will investigate this some more because I had never given my work for free. Is it that easy to copy books from the internet? They even claim to have the audio version. 

22 comments:

  1. Sounds like a classic scam, promising people stuff for free and getting their credit card number. Any actual torrent site would be free i.e. kick a** torrents

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  2. Peaches, I am so sorry to hear this has happened to you. I know you'll have to keep going until they take it down, but I can't imagine how aggravated you must be.

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  3. That's awful. I suppose it's pretty easy to copy just about anything.

    Love,
    Janie

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  4. Sadly it is easy to copy work when thieves take the time to do so. Glad you were proactive and took action.

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  5. So sorry to hear this, Peaches. Actually, I've been reading warnings about piracy, and also warnings not to post excerpts from your books on line. Good luck with tracking down the villains in this case.

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  6. Hola Peaches. Siento mucho lo que estás sufriendo. Escribir un libro es un gran trabajo, le das tu ilusión, tu mente, tus sentimientos y es muy triste que te roben ese trabajo. Deseo que lo puedas solucionar.

    Besos
    abargoartesania.blogspot.com

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  7. Wow! Some people have no shame. Glad you took action.

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  8. So sorry, Peaches. This really stinks. I hope you're able to get some satisfaction. It seems to me you should be able to report this to the FBI for fraud or theft of intellectual property, or something of the kind.

    Good luck!

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  9. Kind of makes you sick, doesn't it? I've found mine at three sites so far. From what I can see, it's free. But still...

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  10. That is so horrible. I got caught once for something too on the internet. Now I am really careful what I do.
    www.thoughtsofpaps.com

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  11. Hi Peaches, feeling very sorry for you and what happens. You must be so shaken and upset, you have to continue to investigate till your work is safe and report it as theft of your own property. Keep posted on how it is going. Hugs dear! xo

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  12. That is infuriating! I hope it resolves soon!

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  13. It sounds totally illegitimate. Hopefully, it is a false pretense and consumers are unable to truly read your books. Bah-- how frustrating and totally wrong.

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  14. This is so wrong! The most frustrating part is they know there is little that you can do about it.

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  15. Oh no! That just makes my stomach churn. How awful! I hope you get things straightened out soon.

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  16. totally disgusting, right?? hoping for the best and the worst for others doing all those bad things!!

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  17. You must be sick about this! How frustrating!

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  18. Thanks for visiting me and following. Following back.
    www.thoughtsofpaps.com

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  19. That's scary stuff! You just can't be too careful these days, and it's unfortunate there are dishonest people out there. Then again, that seems to be a growing trend. Makes me want to ask, "People, didn't your parents teach you better?"

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  20. You can always tell Google to take it down from its results, which can at least help: https://support.google.com/legal/troubleshooter/1114905?hl=en. Other than that you can contact the site's hosting company, which could result in the site being yanked from the Internet.

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  21. That is just horrible--horrible! I hope you get it straightened out soon. :( I don't know why people can't find something more constructive to do with their time...

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  22. I'm sorry you had to experience this. I hope at this time that it's over and that it won't happen again. It's good that you shared your story here so that others can be aware of the potential of it happening to them, too.

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