So a couple days ago someone reached out to me on discord wanting to know if I was a writer and wanting to see my book. I linked them to I like them to my book and next thing I know they are wanting to try and help me get more readers they want to try and promote me I’m skeptical in the beginning and I start asking a lot of questions well they were kind of skirting around it they were answering all my questions and I kept pushing you want to accept their promotion even asked me to make a Fiverr account I went ahead maybe if I ever count just to see what they had on Fiverr no they didn’t really offer me anything on Fiverr but they kept wanting to push it and even after I warned them okay are you just doing this is pretty good as of your heart because I can’t pay I am not in the financial area where I can pay for this they act like that was okay they kept pushing it I kept asking questions I eventually kept saying no I’m fine I think I’ll just do this on my own kind of thing and they kept pushing it even try to say I’ll give you a free trial even try to say I’ll lower the price not really wanting to say no except that I said no and then they went ahead with the promotion without me actually saying yes to it and no it looks like they did get more readers like right off the bat like just like that they already started demanding payment for that I’m like I didn’t agree to it I never said yes to this so I’ve screenshotted the entire conversation as proof right now they’re talking about wanting to label me of this camera wanting to run another promotion labeling my account as a scammer account I am not going to post their name or their username on here just cuz I don’t know if that’s against the rules too but I am giving everybody a heads up out there about this person and what’s going on just in case he does try and take action
Unfortunately writing platforms are overrun with this sort of scammer right now. I know Wattpad was really bad, it’s gotten a bit better on Inkitt.
They leave comments and reviews, sometimes using AI to pretend they’ve read your stories, generally offering to create character art or story promotion like you mentioned.
But since websites like Inkitt are taking measures to prevent these spam bots, they’ve increasingly turned to getting users to chat off platform, using compliments or casual conversation. Anyone’s best bet is to report and block them.
I’m sorry this happened to you ;( but thank you for sharing! It’s a good reminder to always be vigilant online.
I’m sorry that happened to you! 
Scammers are pretty much everywhere these days, and it sucks that when people leave comments or say that they like your book, you have to be skeptical to make sure they’re not a scam /: they know writers crave nothing more than getting their story out there and stuff so they prey on that.
As the saying goes, if it’s too good to be true, it likely is.
And if they’re asking you to do certain things (buy this, pay for that, join specific groups, create accounts, etc.) they’re almost 100% a scam.
I also am in a Discord server for a popular brokerage firm, and the amount of scammers that come in daily is maddening.
And in Wattpad’s case, they decided to just nuke the private message system entirely 
talk about using a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. I get that Wattpad is full of minors and it can be dangerous for them to have private conversations, but surely there should be a better way? I just wish they decided to split private messages into “from people you follow” and “other messages” sections rather than removing the feature outright 
Add that to the list of features that Wattpad has removed completely from their platform 
in addition to the other features they’ve decided to lock behind a paywall.
Thanks. I honestly got more suspicious when they kept pushing without answering my questions properly. I just want to try and prevent this from happening to others.
Blockquote And in Wattpad’s case, they decided to just nuke the private message system entirely
Don’t forget how Wattpad removed their forum, which is like the life blood of the website
And how they removed the newsfeed, too again another solution they could’ve done was to add an anonymous reading mode. I think it would’ve been a hit, not gonna lie: imagine a separate reading mode that would be hidden from your profile activity, wouldn’t notify the author, and would allow you to vote anonymously.
But nope! No more newsfeed instead
The only feature they added recently that I like is the ability to compile your books into a series so that readers can easily hop from one book to its sequel.
Inkitt never had a messaging system to begin with 
so scammers go for comments, reviews, wall posts. And reviews you can’t delete yourself. But they do have an “AI review” you can enable to automatically block them from posting, which has worked well for me over the past month. It does mean genuine readers sometimes have to censor their comments lol
But it wasn’t really, was it? WP is still thriving without it and now they’ve got fewer headaches to deal with
Ah man I get like 10 of these a week T_T If you get a Discord DM beginning with “Hi I noticed we share the same server and XYZ”, “Hello are you a writer”, or some other variation of that, it’s usually safe to block immediately. 9/10 times, they have no messages in whatever server they found you in, and they are always just a scammer. Any ‘work’ they provide will either be AI or stolen, and they won’t label you a scammer or anything. 
Oh I forgot about that. And here I was hoping that when the company that owns webtoons, bought Wattpad, they’d make it better.
We can compile our books into a series(I haven’t been active on Wattpad recently)
I feel like it would have struggled if the dev of this sight hadn’t made wacky writers, because we wouldn’t be able to look for read4reads, or ask for help or post book ads
That’s exactly how they started it! With the whole ‘hi are you a writer’. Just glad I didn’t fall for their game.
Appreciate the vote of confidence, but I assure you Wacky means nothing to WP 
WP is a capitalist corporation which has made decisions for their pwn profitability, and they still work really well because there is no shortage of aspiring writers flocking to the platform. With the rise of AI, they’ll probably pivot to GenAI content before long.
This sounds like a sucky situation.
I’d report that account for extortion as a preventive measure. No, really, that’s what they’re doing. Pay me or I’ll give you trouble. If you don’t do it first, they will. And save screenshots of everything - your conversation and also screenshot of their account, their feed, etc. Because if they block you, you won’t be able to see it and they could go private or delete content, etc.
The scams I’m getting constantly are people wanting to “illustrate” my stories which we all know is going to be 100% AI. It always starts with compliments which is what makes it so much more disappointing.
Just to put your mind at rest, given they followed the same script as all the other dime a dozen scammers, nothing will happen to OP. These scammers all follow identical scripts, and the most they can do is shout some mean words to you in your DMs. Report and block, then move on
Ugh. I hope not with the ai. While I may use it to get idea on characters I don’t want to use ai to write a story
I already screenshot everything, and I plan on keeping them just in case