An aspiring Australian writer met an apparent scammer face-to-face before realising she may have become a victim of a suspicious international publishing venture.
Australia’s National Anti-Scam Centre is now investigating the case of a website luring people seeking a foothold in the increasingly crowded space of vanity and self-publishing. The Guardian has uncovered similar suspicious websites operating in the UK and New Zealand, as well as two others operating within Australia.
This apparent network of publishers – using cloned websites, AI-generated staff and virtual offices across Australia, the UK and New Zealand – includes websites trading by the names of Melbourne Book Publisher, First Page Press (UK), Aussie Book Publisher, Oz Book Publishers and BookPublishers.co.nz.
The entity operating as Melbourne Book Publisher is confusing aspiring authors who think they are dealing with the well-established publisher Melbourne Books – which is not a vanity publisher – going so far as to use a near-identical name and its Australian Business Number (ABN).
The website for ‘Melbourne Book Publisher’, which is confusing aspiring authors who think they are dealing with the well-established publisher Melbourne Books
The company appears to be linked to a similar operation based in London, First Page Press, with both pulling down parts of their websites after the Guardian contacted them with questions about the use of AI-generated content, including staff profiles and testimonials.
First Page Press, which lists addresses in London and Melbourne, also lists books on its site that were actually published by a US-based self-publishing company, Atmosphere Press. Its CEO, Nick Courtright, told the Guardian he considered this “brazen theft” and has since issued a cease and desist notice to First Page Press and reported the matter to Scamwatch.
The ‘First Page Press’ website
Andrea*, a first-time author from Western Australia recovering from cancer, poured her energy into a fantasy romance novel and was thrilled to receive a prompt response to her Facebook query on Melbourne Book Publisher’s page. An executive of the company going by the name of Marcus Hale was keen to discuss her 86,000-word manuscript and scheduled a video conference to discuss the publishing and promotion plans for her book.
“I saw him. He saw me,” Andrea says. “He answered every detailed question about contracts and publishing percentages, we discussed plans for a book signing in Melbourne, we talked about me getting a presence on TikTok, and a launch at my local bookshop. I believed it all.”
Andrea only outlaid $88 for what she was told would buy her an ABN, when the deal began to unravel. She called the Melbourne Books office, who she mistakenly thought she had been dealing with, to ask for further advice before signing her contract. “There’s no Marcus working here,” she was told.
She came to the “gut-churning” assumption that she had met her scammer face-to-face. A second aspiring author from WA, Peter Ortmueller, confirmed he was dealing with someone using the name Marcus Hale and also a Hannah Preston, another name Andrea says she had come across in her communications with Melbourne Book Publisher. He too found the page through Facebook, believing it was a traditional publisher, but realised early on that he was dealing with an imposter company, losing only $150, which he believed was his first downpayment on a publication package.
A screenshot of since-removed AI images under the ‘meet our team’ banner on the Melbourne Book Publisher site‘Meet the team’: AI-generated staff with virtual offices
The true scale of the venture remains impossible to gauge, says the owner of Melbourne Books, David Tenenbaum, as the only known victims are those who became suspicious early and did their due diligence.
First-time authors are being targeted because excitement over the prospect of seeing their work in print often overrides caution, making them vulnerable to promises of immediate publication and industry success.
Self-publishing involves the author taking on the full role of a boutique publisher, investing their own capital to commission creative services and retaining all artistic control and financial returns. Vanity publishing is a model where a company solicits significant financial contributions from the author for assistance with publication, often providing substandard creative support and prioritising the collection of the author’s initial contribution over generating widespread book sales.
“Malicious actors are getting far more sophisticated through the use of AI tools, which allow scammers to rewrite or paraphrase text and alter imagery to make subtle changes that maintain the appearance of authenticity while avoiding detection,” Dr Ashish Nanda, from Deakin University’s Cyber Research and Innovation Centre, says.
While unwilling to say with certainty whether Melbourne Book Publisher was a scam, varying logos, claims on its website that it was established in 1999 yet a domain search showed it was only registered last month, and a fake 4.7 star rating on Trustpilot (the company has no reviews) are suspicious, Nanda says.
By the time Andrea had contacted Melbourne Books, Tenenbaum had already posted a public warning on his company’s website. His office had been receiving calls for Marcus Hale and Hannah Preston for more than a week.
David Tenenbaum, the founder of the well-established publishing company Melbourne Books, at his office in Collins Street, Melbourne. Photograph: Christopher Hopkins/The Guardian
When Andrea contacted her bank to retrieve the $88, she was sent threatening messages, including a demand to cancel the dispute or face legal action. “A legal case for $88 would not be a nice thing,” Melbourne Book Publisher warned her in a Facebook message. When she asked for their ABN to confirm they were a legitimate publisher, they sent her Melbourne Books’ number.
Tenenbaum personally called the number listed on Melbourne Book Publisher’s Facebook page, pretending to be a first-time author. He was emailed publishing options ranging from a $1,495 “Advance Worldwide Plan” to a $1,799 “Premium Worldwide Plan”. He noted that one person who alerted him to the page was asked to pay almost $5,000.
When he challenged the company’s authenticity, he was sent links to three books for sale on Amazon that Melbourne Book Publisher claimed it had published. Amazon told the Guardian it has “found no records to suggest the books in question were linked to Melbourne Book Publisher”.
“We are committed to protecting rights owners and our customers from bad actors attempting to abuse our services,” Amazon said in a statement.
The increasing use of AI is enabling publishing scams to fabricate entire teams of fake executives and use the identities of real authors to create a highly deceptive corporate facade.
The “meet our team” page on the Melbourne Book Publisher site used AI-created images of immaculately groomed white executives with a rotating cast of names including Jonathan Hale, Marcus Ellison and Lydia Preston. When the Guardian first checked Melbourne Book Publisher’s team page on Monday, Marcus Hale and Hannah Preston were not listed. First Page Press uses a similar “team”, initially with the same AI-generated images. None of the people named are known in Australian publishing circles.
The images were swiftly pulled down on both websites after the Guardian contacted Melbourne Book Publisher asking why they were using AI-created images for their executive team. When the Guardian contacted First Page Press in London asking why they had suddenly pulled down the images, someone identifying themselves as Kendrick Wilson, a “senior consultant” not listed on First Page’s website, said they were not using any kind of AI-generated means to portray staff.
He added: “But apart from that, these days … every other website is taking advantage of AI, so I don’t think that using AI or artificial intelligence to enhance the website that you have, or enhance the brand presence that you have, is any kind of an illegal thing to do.”
When the Guardian asked if he could put any of the staff named on the website on to the phone, he hung up.
Websites using real authors to lure people
The operations known as Aussie Book Publisher and Oz Book Publishers have created fake testimonials, using the images and names of real authors.
US children’s author Blair N Williamson who was renamed ‘Kristine’ on the Aussie Books website
US environmental activist and children’s author Blair N Williamson was renamed “Kristine” on the Aussie Books website, and quoted giving a testimonial about a “leadership book” next to a photo of her holding a copy of her children’s picture book, Birthday Bash – with her real name still visible on the cover.
“As an author, you work so hard to build trust with your readers,” she told the Guardian. “So to see my name used and my photo in a deceptive way felt pretty unsettling.”
Australian children’s author Katrina Germein becomes “Sarah” on Aussie Books’ testimonial page.
“I was drowning in publishing confusion until I found Aussie Book Publishing,” the fake “Sarah” says. “Worth every single dollar invested”.
After being alerted by the Guardian to the unauthorised and misleading use of their images, both writers are seeking responses to cease and desist notifications sent to Aussie Books, and have reported the company to Scamwatch.
While other testimonials across Aussie Book Publisher, Oz Book Publisher and Book Publisher NZ appear to include AI-generated or fake testimonials from “satisfied authors”, the books these websites claim they have published are real. Most are listed for sale on Amazon, the vast majority categorised as self-published books.
All four suspect companies the Guardian investigated list physical addresses in reputable or high-end business districts in London, Melbourne, Brisbane and Wellington, adding another layer of apparent legitimacy and professionalism to their operations.
Australian children’s author Katrina Germein who is named ‘Sarah’ on Aussie Books’ testimonial page
However, the exact addresses are all serviced office spaces that can be used by an unlimited number of companies.
First Page Press, Aussie Book Publisher, Oz Book Publishers and Book Publisher NZ did not respond to the Guardian’s written inquiries, including requests to provide proof of contract and/or royalty statements that match the ISBNs for any of the books they are promoting on their websites.
Melbourne Book Publisher responded to the Guardian’s initial inquiry saying it had always operated transparently as a self-publishing company, and that it would offer a formal apology to Melbourne Books and Andrea. It said that the person who made the legal threats was an employee who no longer worked for the company. It had not apologised by Friday.
A statement about Melbourne Book Publisher from the Australian consumer watchdog, the ACCC, said: “While there has been limited public reports about this website to Scamwatch, the National Anti-Scam Centre is looking into this matter and encourages people who encounter any publishing scams to make a report to its Scamwatch service.
“We are aware that scammers impersonate websites to steal from consumers, including through publisher scams. Anyone who has paid money to a publishing scam should make a report to Scamwatch as this information helps us continue to disrupt scam networks.
*Andrea did not want to use her full name for privacy reasons