The Joys of Outwitting Scams

Recently, one of my poems became a semi-finalist in a contest (Poetry.com). I have heard many a dubious remark about this site, and yet I continue to get my hopes up that I may win the elusive $10,000 annual prize. Among the many less-than-stellar comments on the way this site operates is that they get money for books that they never ship, they require massive payouts for symposiums, resources, etc., and they never respond to correspondence of any kind.

I, however, read every word of the letter that they sent me, and found that they (apparently) publish semi-finalists regardless of payment. So I checked off the "permission to publish" box, wrote my edits to the draft, wrote a little note, and sent it off sans check. No chance of being stolen from if you never give 'em money to begin with, I say.

Now they have sent me an e-mail about how I have been selected for their elite membership program. I clicked on "more info" to see if I would need to pay anything, and wouldn't ya know it, the link was broken. Every single link in the letter went to a non-functioning site. I attempted to reply and dutifully report this error, only to have GMail yell at me...something to do with invalid domain name or no response or some other such error report.

No ability to reply means that my membership, paid or otherwise, will be put on hold. I am not giving out a massive amount of information to a company that didn't even give me working addresses. Take that potential scammers!

What shocks me the most is not the sleazy way that these companies sneak about, but that people are still surprised when their money vanishes. Allow me to spell it out in my trademark all caps:

IF ANYONE ASKS FOR MONEY UP FRONT FOR PUBLICATION THEY ARE EITHER SMALL-TIME OR A SCAM!!!!

Often these companies are struggling to get by normally, so they get a lot of money out of the saps who seem unable to read fine print. Poets and writers talk about how their intellectual property was stolen and they feel violated, to which I respond: "Either grow some brains or grow a pair". If you are sending money to a company that you probably can't find on the NYSE, CPOYRIGHT YOUR WORK FIRST!!! It's very simple. Just go to http://www.creativecommons.com and you can get a little icon thingy (much like the one all the way at the bottom of this blog) that is an honest to goodness LEGAL COPYRIGHT. If internet copyrights make you nervous, mail a copy of the work to yourself. An unopened, time-stamped envelope is a legally binding indicication of ownership.

Seriously, some artists need to wise up and realize that in the cold, brutal world of American business, profit is the viscious dictator. Businessmen will drain every penny out of you if they can. Don't let them: never send a check without proof of service and a copyright, never pay to have anything published, and never trust the guy taking your money. There are legitimate agents for all fields that won't charge you a dime until after publication, at which time they'll take 10-15%. Wise up, people.

-DubTak