Beware of New Beta Reader Scam on Bluesky

While Bluesky so far has been a fairly scam-proof social media platform – thanks to its ability to create sharable moderation lists that block bad guys – that strength is being tested. Book marketing scammers, knowing that many authors have left Xitter and Facebook, have been trying to find ways to infest Bluesky, and their first large scale attack appears to be underway.

It’s the proliferation of Beta Reader/Editor profiles.

Here’s how the scam works. The scammer sets up a profile declaring they are a beta reader/editor, and sometimes they even offer other services. All of the profiles use similar scripts by posting a few of the same questions and professing their love of helping authors improve their work. None of the profiles contain a link to their website or give their real name, something a legitimate beta reader or book editor would do.

Once you follow the profile, within a few hours you’ll receive a chat message or request. Sometimes if you post that you need a beta reader or edit, they respond. From there, the pattern is the same as any other book marketing scam – the scammer tries to be friendly so you let your guard down and then attempts to convince you to use their services.

Most of the time the beta reading is free (as beta reading should be, otherwise it’s an edit), but the scammer never actually reads your book, Instead, your manuscript is copied and pasted into an AI program, which writes an analysis of the piece. You then receive this analysis with glowing praise but a warning that you need an edit to fix some problems. This is when you spend money. You’ll never see an edit, however, and if you do, it’ll be done by AI. The scammer then deleted that profile or you’re simply ghosted when inquiring where your edited manuscript is or about the poor job they did. This scam is common on Xitter and Facebook.

Should you ask to see a website or if the scammer gives one in their profile, you’ll typically be sent to a generic AI-generated one on Lovable.app or are sent to a Fiverr or Upwork account, favorites of scammers because getting your money back once spent there is difficult. Many of Fiverr and Upwork accounts indicate that the person who owns them is in Nigeria, a hotbed for transnational criminal organizations that commit cybercrime. If you continue to interact with them, the answers by and large will be generated by AI.

I’ve been able to trace a number of these scams on Bluesky specifically to Nigeria. When I ask for the beta reader’s name, they typically give one that has a clearly fake account on LinkedIn (AI photo, no experience, recently posted, location in Nigeria or a country where Nigerian crooks have cells), and their name matches those used on other email addresses or social media accounts that others already have identified online as a scammer.

Should you encounter one of these profiles on Bluesky, don’t interact with it. Instead, click the three dots on the top right side of their profile and hit “Report Account” on the dropdown menu. Report the account as “Misleading” and then as “Scam.” Next, block the account. If you keep a moderation list for scammers, add it them the list. This helps Bluesky identify and delete scammer profiles while protecting other authors from falling for it.

If you need a beta reader and an editor to read your work, there are dozens of legitimate profiles on Bluesky. Such accounts give the person’s actual name, which then can be googled. You’ll likely find that author or editor has published a book and has a number of other social media accounts in which their pictures match. Beta readers never charge for their services beyond a trade of “I’ll beta read your book if you’ll beta read mine” – and if they do charge, they’re no longer a beta reader but an editor. In that case, they should have a website that isn’t generated by AI. Legitimate editors are upfront about their prices, their experience editing, and provide testimonials from real people who in turn can be cross-referenced by googling their names. Scammers don’t go through the trouble of doing all of this because it isn’t worth their time – after all, once they scam a few authors, at least one of those authors usually post that a scammer runs the website, rendering it no longer is effective in conning others.

When encountering these beta reader/editors, I do a quick check to see if red flags pop up that they are a scammer. If they fail the test, I then add them to my Marketing Scammers list, which if you are Bluesky you can subscribe to (for free!).

Of course, saying that authors don’t have a lot of money is done tongue in cheek. The fact is many authors have day jobs or are collecting retirement benefits. We authors may not be wealthy from our books, but most of us have enough disposable income that scammers are betting they can convince at least a few of us to part with some cash. And it’s apparently working or scammers would have given up by now.
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My name is Rob Bignell. I’m an affordable, professional editor who runs Inventing Reality Editing Service, which meets the manuscript needs of writers both new and published. I also offer a variety of self-publishing services. During the past 15 years, I’ve helped more than 400 novelists and nonfiction authors obtain their publishing dreams at reasonable prices. I’m also the author of the Storytelling 101 writing guidebooks, four nonfiction hiking guidebook series, and the literary novel Windmill. Several of my short stories in the literary and science fiction genres also have been published.

Check out my book about marketing scams aimed at writers: