Report Fraud to Your Local and State authorities

For those of you who either have been conned, or you have had someone attempt to con you, you should report this fraud to your local and state authorities.

Like the attorney general, department of consumer affairs, police, etc, depending on the situation. It's good to post here to inform other writers, but you also need to let the government know about this.

We can reduce substantially the amount of fraud out there by reporting it and informing people out their rights. Also, as more cons get prosecuted and this makes the news, that in itself will be providing education to would be con artists.

Reporting scams.

Excellent excellent advice!

Re: Reporting scams.

On the Overview page of Writer Beware, there are suggestions about where to file complaints, and links to websites where you can look up your local BBB office, FBI office, etc.

www.sfwa.org/beware/overview.html

I encourage anyone who feels they've been scammed to complain to all the sources listed at the link above. People do check with the BBB, and a public record of complaints may make someone think twice...and, very rarely, a large volume of writers' complaints will spur the FBI or Attorney General's office to investigate--or even the local police, as in the case of Janet Kay.

- Victoria

this is quite right

and thank you, Victoria, for mentioning the FBI. there are task forces for white collar crimes even in these post-911 days. we may be talking wire and mail fraud, which are, among other thingsd, federal crimes.