Media & Press

How To Break Through the Media Clutter as a New Filmmaker or Book Author

How To Break Through the Media Clutter as a New Filmmaker or Book Author

Suppose you are a new filmmaker, and you have just found a distributor and want to promote your film or series? What if you are the author of a new independently published book? What do you do if you must do all or most of the promotion, which is common without big names, a major production company, and a big budget. Here’s a formula I discovered based on promoting two of my films that were recently released by Gravitas Ventures. You can use it for promoting a book, too. One of the films I promoted is Conned: A True Story, based on the book The Big Con published by American Leadership Books, about how I discovered a book-to-film scam after a book publishing company hired me as ghostwriter and invented an executive producer for a real company. They used this subterfuge of a $100,000 offer...

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A New Black Market for Selling and Buying Stolen Facebook Groups

A New Black Market for Selling and Buying Stolen Facebook Groups

Facebook and other social media account holders have another thing to worry about. Their Facebook groups and their account can be stolen, and then it can turn up for sale on the black market.  And the owners of accounts on Instagram, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, and other social media platforms can lose their groups, too.  It’s totally illegal, but these groups are selling for hundreds and sometimes thousands of dollars, depending upon how many group members there are.  Then the new owners can monetize these groups by marketing, advertising, and promoting products and services to the newly acquired members.  Or worse – they can seek to gain emails and personal information from the members, so they can scam them for money or access their computers. That’s what well-known author Gini...

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Don’t Let the Recovery and Refund Scammers Scam You

Don’t Let the Recovery and Refund Scammers Scam You

Anyone who’s already been a scam victim can become a target of being scammed again by the worst of the worst – the refund and recovery scammers. They seek out scam victims who had already lost money or a social media account with the false hope that they can help them get back their money or account.  But don’t believe it. Not only won’t they get back what you lost, but they’ll extract even more money from you. Their strategy is to pose as “experts” or “saviors” who can recover lost money or hacked accounts, and they target the vulnerable who have already been scammed, leading them to experience more financial loss, and commonly, they gain personal information they can use like a weapon against the victim. One way they extract money is to ask you to pay them a retainer with the promise...

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Turning the Tables on a Facebook Scammer

Turning the Tables on a Facebook Scammer

Normally, scammers who steal Facebook groups and other social media accounts use them to get money and personal information from the members of the group or they sell the groups on the Internet black market.  Then, the buyer of the group goes after the money and personal information. But in a crazy twist of fate, Gini Graham Scott, the author of a half-dozen books and two films on scams, ended up becoming an administrator of her stolen group on scams after a random group member was made an administrator by the scammer.  Then, the two of them kicked out the scammer, along with over 200 scammers who joined the scam site to promote recovery and refund scams.  Though Gini had originally started the site to advise others on how to avoid different kinds of scams, it soon became taken over by...

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Writer on Scams Experiences Common But Little Known Scams and Writes About them – From Facebook Hacks to Recurring Subscription Charges

Writer on Scams Experiences Common But Little Known Scams and Writes About them – From Facebook Hacks to Recurring Subscription Charges

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Scams are becoming ever more common and sophisticated, so they can even scam the scam experts who carefully seek to avoid them. That’s what happened to writer-film producer Gini Graham Scott who wrote three books and produced two documentaries about different types of scams and how to avoid them. The books are: - The Big Con about a book-to-film scam she discovered as a ghostwriter.  - I Was Scammed, about several dozen scams to avoid;  - Scam Story, about a scammer who tried to scam her by claiming to be a PayPal rep but she outwitted him. These books were turned into two just released films by Gravitas Ventures: “Conned: A True Story” and “Con Artists Unveiled.”  Then, she became a victim of two more new scams affecting millions of victims each year and wrote...

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Award Winning Filmmaker & Author Turns Being a Scam Victim into Films & Books about Scams

Award Winning Filmmaker & Author Turns Being a Scam Victim into Films & Books about Scams

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Scams often leave victims devastated emotionally and financially, but an award-winning filmmaker and book author Gini Graham Scott turned her experience of being scammed not once but three times into films and books about scams that help others know about and protect themselves from being scammed or help them heal. In her first scam experience, one of her ghostwriting clients was a publisher with clients who wanted to turn their films into books. So she wrote the kind of materials an author would need to interest a producer – a logline/synopsis, show bible for a series, script, and sometimes a treatment or sizzle reel. She thought it was totally legit. But th e catch was that the publisher used the lure of a “deal” from an executive producer at a major studio to get...

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Award Winning Filmmaker & Author Turns Being a Scam Victim into Films & Books about Scams

Two Riveting Documentaries, “Con Artists Unveiled” & “Conned: The True Story,” Expose the Dark Underbelly of Scams and Deception

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE San Ramon and Danville, California – In a world filled with intrigue and deception, Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D., a prolific author, and award-winning filmmaker, has unveiled two compelling documentaries that shine a light on the world of scams and con artists. “Conned: A True Story" and "Con Artists Unveiled" are captivating films based on Gini Graham Scott's own books, The Big Con and I Was Scammed respectively, which provide the shocking story of a book-to-film scam that left countless victims and an eye-opening exploration of various scams.   Conned: A True Story is available to rent or buy at https://www.amazon.com/Conned-True-Story-Robert-Newman/dp/B0CH9X62XQ. It tells the true stories of multiple scams. Bank accounts were wiped out, lives were all but...

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Stopping the Steal of Your Facebook Group

Stopping the Steal of Your Facebook Group

Combating the Problem Facebook has implemented various security measures to combat the unauthorized takeover of groups, such as two-factor authentication and alerts for suspicious activity. However, ultimately, group administrators have to take steps to safeguard their group through safe online practices, such as being cautious of phishing scams and regularly updating their security settings. For example, a day after I discovered my lost Facebook group was suddenly active again, I got a notice from Facebook about a request to change my password, with a link for changing it, or alternatively, I could click a link indicating that I hadn’t made the request.  I quickly chose that option; then I checked my security settings to make sure I had 2-Factor Authentication in place, which I did....

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How Scammers Are Stealing & Reselling Facebook Groups: and What You Can Do About It

How Scammers Are Stealing & Reselling Facebook Groups: and What You Can Do About It

If you have a Facebook group or are a member of one, here’s a threat to worry about – if it already hasn’t happened to you.  Scammers are stealing Facebook groups by changing passwords and emails. Once they control it, they can sell it on the black market to buyers who can make money from the group members – or even get their emails and personal identity information to scam them, too. I became aware of this scam because my own email account and the two groups I set up in the account were stolen about four months ago and my own posts were removed.  Then nothing seemed to happen.  A post I wrote in the groups about the theft was left pending, and the last posts from a few other people remained as of mid-September.  My associates with posts in the group heard nothing either. Then, a few...

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Writer-Producer with Books & Films on Avoiding Scams Loses Scam Group to Facebook Scammer

Writer-Producer with Books & Films on Avoiding Scams Loses Scam Group to Facebook Scammer

I thought I knew how to be cautious and avoid scams after writing three books and producing two documentaries about scams and how to avoid them. But I ended up losing my Facebook account and two groups I created – “Scammed” with over 4800 members featuring different scams in the news, and “The AI Revolution and Writers and Artists” with over 500 members featuring the latest developments in AI affecting writers and artists. After I got back my email which Facebook removed from its system, I restarted the groups under new names: “Cons and Scams” and “The AI Revolution and Writing, Arts, and Business,” over two dozen scammers joined these accounts and immediately offered help in recovering money or Facebook accounts, though I quickly blocked them and deleted their posts. I was initially...

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How I Discovered a Book to Film Scam and Turned It into a Book & Just-Released Film

How I Discovered a Book to Film Scam and Turned It into a Book & Just-Released Film

It looked like just another job when a company I worked with on a series of projects — writing screenplays, loglines, and synopses and assessing whether a book would make a good film — asked me to review a woman’s book dealing with time travel into Nazi times by a boy and his dog. They were seeking to rescue their scientist father who was blasted back there by an evil scientist seeking to steal his book of inventions. After I suggested her book could make a good film, I thought it was perfectly normal that I should ghostwrite additional material for this woman, so she could pitch her film to producers and agents. Then, I discovered this was all a scam, when the woman had trouble paying the company for my writing. Why? When I spoke to her, she explained that the payment platforms wouldn’t...

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How Can You Prove It Is Really You? Scam Victims Discover It’s Hard to Do After a Scam

How Can You Prove It Is Really You? Scam Victims Discover It’s Hard to Do After a Scam

What if you have been the victim of a scam and someone has stolen your email or identity? How can you prove you are you to friends, family members, and business associates when you communicate with them online, in addition to dealing with the banks, credit card companies, stores, and online services, which may need verification from you? It can sometimes be very hard to prove who you are, because someone can disbelieve you even if you tell them some facts about yourself. After all, if your personal information is out there on your personal profile in so many places as well as in the emails you share with friends, anyone can know all about you. And scammers try to pretend they are someone else all the time to get other people’s money or personal identity information. So how do you prove...

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Author of Books and Films on Scams Turns Experience into Books about These Scams and How to Avoid Them

Author of Books and Films on Scams Turns Experience into Books about These Scams and How to Avoid Them

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE It might sound like the plot of a thriller film or novel, but a writer of books and films about scams became a victim of another scam in which she nearly lost her bank account to a PayPal rep and then she lost her Facebook account and groups to an email replacement scam. But after a chase to buy nearly $10,000 in gift cards for the PayPal scammer who gained account information for her bank, she foiled the scammer who followed her on her way to the first store by going to her bank, called out “I’m being scammed,” and the bank quickly closed her account. So score one for the victim! But she couldn’t act quickly enough to save her Facebook account and groups dealing with scams and AI, though she recreated them again as “Cons, Scams, and Frauds” and “The AI Revolution...

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The Latest Scam – Stealing and Reselling Facebook Groups

The Latest Scam – Stealing and Reselling Facebook Groups

If you have a Facebook group, or are a member of one, here’s a threat to worry about – if it already hasn’t happened to you.  Scammers are stealing Facebook groups by changing passwords and emails. Once they control it, they can sell it on the black market to buyers who can make money from the group members – or even get their emails and personal identity information to scam them, too. I became aware of this scam because my own email account and the two groups I set up in the account were stolen about four months ago and my own posts were removed.  Then nothing seemed to happen.  A post I wrote in the groups about the theft was left pending, and the last posts from a few other people remained as of mid-September.  My associates with posts in the group heard nothing either. Then, a few...

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Service that Helps Writers Get Published & Produced Celebrates 19 Years

Service that Helps Writers Get Published & Produced Celebrates 19 Years

Now, after 19 years of helping writers find book agents, publishers, and film industry contacts, Publishers Agents and Films (www.publishersagentsfilms.com) is going strong.  After helping over 1000 writers over the years and getting over 300 testimonials, the company is still helping many book and script writers each month. The way the service works is it sends out email queries to editors and agents interested in that kind of manuscript from the writer's email using special software. Then interested editors and agents contact the writers directly.  Many writers have used the service multiple times for new books.  When the service first started in the early days of using emails, the Wall Street Journal wrote about it, which spread the word about the service worldwide. Writer and...

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For Workshops on Self-Publishing & Finding Publishers, Agents and Film Producers

Make More Money with Your Book Workshop

Gini boils down years of experience and multiple areas of expertise into a simple presentation with helpful goodies tailored to participants’ interests.

Very informative.

Joey Tomic

Physicians Assistant , San Ramon, California

Very informative and well presented. A real eye opener on monetizing your book.

I’m glad that I came.

Vicente Ortia

thesoulworkcompany.com

Very informative and well presented. A real eye opener on monetizing your book.

I’m glad that I came.

Monica Viglioglia

Author of Soulwork , thesoulworkcompany.com

Very helpful in providing resources and options for publishing a book and screenplay, and seeing how to self-publish as an option. Gini is a wealth of information based on her hands-on experience with publishing and educational background.

If you are interested in getting published, she’s the person to see.

Rena Grant

Concord, California

Very informative… I found it very helpful.

Yisehak Fikre-Sellassie

Yisehakfinearts.com

I liked this workshop.  I would recommend it to others, since it was very information with a good broad-based approach.

Very helpful hints.

Chris L’Orange

Orinda, California

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Publishing & Writing

 

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