Silver Sands Books
featuring books written by Michael N. Marcus
2008-2018
Anthology of Third-World Email Scams: Learn from the best and worst
This authoritative, informative and entertaining book can serve as both an introduction and a refresher course in email scamming. It includes excerpts from good, mediocre and absolutely awful money-grabbing emails as well as important advice to help increase income.
Although this book seems to provide guidance for online thieves, its actual purposes are benign:
(1) It will help people to avoid becoming victims of online scams.
(2) It will help all writers.
(3) It will particularly help writers in advertising, fundraising and other fields to write more professional, more believable and more productive copy.
(4) It will make people cringe and laugh.
Michael N. Marcus is a journalist, editor, bestselling author of more than 40 books, award-winning advertising copywriter, publisher and mostly successful amateur attorney. His own emails, websites, blogs, ads and brochures have generated millions of dollars in revenue. He has received more than 10,000 scam emails and has fallen for just one of them. Michael accepted a forged teller’s check for more than $700. The money was lost and the perpetrator was not arrested.
Internet HELL
On two Amazon Bestseller Lists!
Early on a Saturday morning in the summer of 2010, Michael N. Marcus received an alarming call from an old friend. The friend said that she had received an email saying that Michael was a convicted child rapist, published child pornography, burned his wife, was in prison for four years, drove drunk, used the Internet to find children to have sex with, was part of an international pedophile ring, was a threat to his neighbors, and had even RAPED HIS DOG.
As shocking as these false accusations were, things rapidly got worse.
The anonymous accuser sent similar emails to Michael's friends, relatives and business associates and members of the media, wrote accusatory letters to newspapers, set up online petitions to have him put on a list of sex offenders, and established a libelous blog with a huge number of false accusations. He even published pictures of Michael and his house -- and directions to get there.
The attacker created multiple false identities to join in the attack, formed a phony organization to add credibility, and tried to halt printing and sale of books Michael wrote. People called for Michael's imprisonment, castration and execution.
From the very beginning, there was only one obvious suspect, but police and the FBI could not prove who the perpetrator was. Marcus was able to get some lies removed from the web, but some are still there -- and may remain there for as long as the Internet exists.
Under the protective umbrella of the First Amendment, companies that host websites allow anyone to say anything about anyone... and some people will believe the most absurd accusations without any effort to verify them.
The book includes a fictionalized back story about the likely attacker, the truthful story of the attacks (with color screen shots), the aftermath, recommendations for those who are similarly attacked, and an appropriate joke.