Lost in the Plot: How Would-Be Authors Were Deceived by AI Employees and Virtual Offices in a Suspected Global Publishing Scam

An aspiring Australian writer met an apparent fraudster in person before realizing she may have fallen victim to a suspicious international publishing company.

Australia’s National Anti-Scam Center is investigating the case of a website that lures people looking to break into the increasingly crowded vanity and self-publishing space. The Guardian has uncovered similar suspicious websites operating in the UK and New Zealand, as well as two others in Australia.

This apparent publishing network, which uses cloned websites, AI-generated staff and virtual offices in Australia, the UK and New Zealand, includes websites called Melbourne Book Publisher, First Page Press (UK), Aussie Book Publisher, Oz Book Publishers and BookPublishers.co.nz.

Trading as Melbourne Book Publisher, the company confuses aspiring authors who think they are dealing with established authors The publisher Melbourne Books – which is not a vanity publisher – goes like this…