I’m posting about con jobs because I’ve seen them happen before and I hate to see people being taken advantage of. There have been people conning other people since the beginning of time and the Internet has only exacerbated this.

Watch out for Internet con jobs, especially those that tug at your heart. These are the worst offenders. There are a few going around and they sound endearing, honest, and reliable. They are asking for money by handing out personal details in private messages or private e-mails that make you stop and think twice. But if it involves money and it’s going around through a social network or through e-mail and you don’t know the situation personally, it’s most likely a con job.

When decent, honest people are working for a charity or running a legitimate fundraiser they post about the cause at hand and state their intentions openly and in public. They have nothing to hide. They don’t do it through furtive e-mails and private messages on social media. This is creepy. This is wrong on so many levels I could write a book about it.

And we all work too hard for our money to let anyone take advantage of us. If you’re an author, no one helped you more than you helped yourself by writing your book and finding a way to get it published. No one was around when you were getting rejected and you found the strength to keep going. Don’t get sucked in.