Reader Beware : How to Spot a Book Thief

By Author Cat JohnsonRomance Novels

Warning! Please Share.
There has been a rash of fake publishers opening iBooks accounts, stealing our books and selling them there. Duplicate listings that are almost indistinguishable from the real listing. ALMOST indistinguishable… please look at the below pictures. One listing is real and lists CAT JOHNSON as the publisher/seller. The other is the stolen duplicate and lists the scammer ROYAL HOUSE PRESS as the publisher/seller.


A way to spot a scam copy is if you see two listings of the same ebook for sale at the same vendor. In this case, a search on iBooks yielded 2 copies of the same title. I had to open each of the listings and look for the Publisher/Seller names to find only one was mine and one was a stolen copy.

I have contacted iBooks’ legal department however these scammers are like playing whack-a-mole. You shut down one and another pops up almost immediately so please BE AWARE. Do not buy from them by mistake. And if you see a duplicate listing for any of your favorite authors, let them know!  Consumer awareness is the best way to fight this.

UPDATE! I’d like to thank iBooks (both the rep and the legal department) for acting quickly to remove the stolen copy of my book. Let’s all work together to keep an eye out for other scammers and get them taken down just as fast!

Thank you!

7 thoughts on “Reader Beware : How to Spot a Book Thief”

  1. As if it isn’t hard enough to get our books in front of readers, we have to deal with piracy and blatant stealing. They don’t care how many months we spend writing, the hours in-between day jobs, giving up our time to write what we love and give people pleasure reading it. Thanks for the heads-up.

    1. I’m happy to spread the word. This needs to be on all our radar because it can and does happen at all sites. The more eyes looking for the problem the better. Thanks for commenting!

    1. You are right, the rep was great and also the department iBooks has to deal with this sort of thing was right on it. The scam copy was down within an hour of my reporting it, however, I don’t know how many days it might have been up before I found it so yeah, we all have to keep an eye peeled for these scam copies.

  3. Thank you so much for sharing. I’m really sorry this is happening to you, but I’m glad the iBooks people were able to help really quickly.
    It’s hard enough to sell books, to then lose sales to readers who think they’re supporting us but are in fact handing over money to scammers – really boils my blood.

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