Amazon Kindle scam nets millions for self-publisher – A. V. Club

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Photo: Amazon Photo: Amazon

Back in the day, you used to have to rely on a bad recommendation from a friend or a bookstore clerk to get duped into reading something not worth your time. But thanks to new technology like the Kindle, thousands of terribly written best-selling books are right at your fingertips. What you may not realize is that your purchase of that top-trending digital rag is actually just a small part of a much larger, more insidious scam.

One such scam was recently uncovered by Zack Whittaker of ZDNet—forever known as the Woodward and Bernstein of e-books and fake reviews—and is reported to have made the scammers millions of dollars. Essentially, the grift works like this: A Vancouver-based engineer named Valeriy Shershnyov outsourced the writing of hundreds of "low-quality ebooks," which cover a wide range of banal topics and are riddled with grammatical errors. I then formed a database of thousands of fake Amazon accounts that would download the e-books for free, boosting their position in Amazon’s rankings. Eleven of these books ranked high enough, they would revert back to their original price and everyone and their mother (read: mostly people’s mothers) would buy them.

The database of phony accounts (Screenshot: ZDNet)

If you’re a frequent purchaser of trending e-books then this whole scheme probably makes your blood boil. Especially since, as Whittaker notes, Shershnyov broke Amazon”s terms of service but "I hasn’t broken the law." Meaning, pretty soon I could be back at it again under a different name, with a whole slew of newly minted crappy novels.

On the other hand, if you’re the type of person who blindly purchases a book with a or badly photoshopped cover about homesteading or the art of cross-stitch just because the little list on your Kindle says it’s popular, and maybe an e-book scam isn’t your most pressing problem.

Send your Great Job, Internet tips to GJI@avclub.com

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Photo: Amazon – A. V. Club

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Photo: Amazon Photo: Amazon

Back in the day, you used to have to rely on a bad recommendation from a friend or a bookstore clerk to get duped into reading something not worth your time. But thanks to new technology like the Kindle, thousands of terribly written best-selling books are right at your fingertips. What you may not realize is that your purchase of that top-trending digital rag is actually just a small part of a much larger, more insidious scam.

One such scam was recently uncovered by Zack Whittaker of ZDNet—forever known as the Woodward and Bernstein of e-books and fake reviews—and is reported to have made the scammers millions of dollars. Essentially, the grift works like this: A Vancouver-based engineer named Valeriy Shershnyov outsourced the writing of hundreds of "low-quality ebooks," which cover a wide range of banal topics and are riddled with grammatical errors. I then formed a database of thousands of fake Amazon accounts that would download the e-books for free, boosting their position in Amazon’s rankings. Eleven of these books ranked high enough, they would revert back to their original price and everyone and their mother (read: mostly people’s mothers) would buy them.

The database of phony accounts (Screenshot: ZDNet)

If you’re a frequent purchaser of trending e-books then this whole scheme probably makes your blood boil. Especially since, as Whittaker notes, Shershnyov broke Amazon”s terms of service but "I hasn’t broken the law." Meaning, pretty soon I could be back at it again under a different name, with a whole slew of newly minted crappy novels.

On the other hand, if you’re the type of person who blindly purchases a book with a or badly photoshopped cover about homesteading or the art of cross-stitch just because the little list on your Kindle says it’s popular, and maybe an e-book scam isn’t your most pressing problem.

Send your Great Job, Internet tips to GJI@avclub.com

Share Tweet

More Great Job, Internet!

Previous Great Job, Internet! Two New Zealanders made the yugest Donald Trump game of the election

Next Great Job, Internet! The Simpsons are back, in graph form

WATCH VIDEO FROM THE A. V. CLUB

Don t miss a story—follow The A. V. Club on:

Photo: Amazon – A. V. Club

the

Photo: Amazon Photo: Amazon

Back in the day, you used to have to rely on a bad recommendation from a friend or a bookstore clerk to get duped into reading something not worth your time. But thanks to new technology like the Kindle, thousands of terribly written best-selling books are right at your fingertips. What you may not realize is that your purchase of that top-trending digital rag is actually just a small part of a much larger, more insidious scam.

One such scam was recently uncovered by Zack Whittaker of ZDNet—forever known as the Woodward and Bernstein of e-books and fake reviews—and is reported to have made the scammers millions of dollars. Essentially, the grift works like this: A Vancouver-based engineer named Valeriy Shershnyov outsourced the writing of hundreds of "low-quality ebooks," which cover a wide range of banal topics and are riddled with grammatical errors. I then formed a database of thousands of fake Amazon accounts that would download the e-books for free, boosting their position in Amazon’s rankings. Eleven of these books ranked high enough, they would revert back to their original price and everyone and their mother (read: mostly people’s mothers) would buy them.

The database of phony accounts (Screenshot: ZDNet)

If you’re a frequent purchaser of trending e-books then this whole scheme probably makes your blood boil. Especially since, as Whittaker notes, Shershnyov broke Amazon”s terms of service but "I hasn’t broken the law." Meaning, pretty soon I could be back at it again under a different name, with a whole slew of newly minted crappy novels.

On the other hand, if you’re the type of person who blindly purchases a book with a or badly photoshopped cover about homesteading or the art of cross-stitch just because the little list on your Kindle says it’s popular, and maybe an e-book scam isn’t your most pressing problem.

Send your Great Job, Internet tips to GJI@avclub.com

Share Tweet

More Great Job, Internet!

Previous Great Job, Internet! Two New Zealanders made the yugest Donald Trump game of the election

Next Great Job, Internet! The Simpsons are back, in graph form

WATCH VIDEO FROM THE A. V. CLUB

Don t miss a story—follow The A. V. Club on:

Amazon Kindle scam nets millions for self-publisher – A. V. Club

the

Photo: Amazon Photo: Amazon

Back in the day, you used to have to rely on a bad recommendation from a friend or a bookstore clerk to get duped into reading something not worth your time. But thanks to new technology like the Kindle, thousands of terribly written best-selling books are right at your fingertips. What you may not realize is that your purchase of that top-trending digital rag is actually just a small part of a much larger, more insidious scam.

One such scam was recently uncovered by Zack Whittaker of ZDNet—forever known as the Woodward and Bernstein of e-books and fake reviews—and is reported to have made the scammers millions of dollars. Essentially, the grift works like this: A Vancouver-based engineer named Valeriy Shershnyov outsourced the writing of hundreds of "low-quality ebooks," which cover a wide range of banal topics and are riddled with grammatical errors. I then formed a database of thousands of fake Amazon accounts that would download the e-books for free, boosting their position in Amazon’s rankings. Eleven of these books ranked high enough, they would revert back to their original price and everyone and their mother (read: mostly people’s mothers) would buy them.

The database of phony accounts (Screenshot: ZDNet)

If you’re a frequent purchaser of trending e-books then this whole scheme probably makes your blood boil. Especially since, as Whittaker notes, Shershnyov broke Amazon”s terms of service but "I hasn’t broken the law." Meaning, pretty soon I could be back at it again under a different name, with a whole slew of newly minted crappy novels.

On the other hand, if you’re the type of person who blindly purchases a book with a or badly photoshopped cover about homesteading or the art of cross-stitch just because the little list on your Kindle says it’s popular, and maybe an e-book scam isn’t your most pressing problem.

Send your Great Job, Internet tips to GJI@avclub.com

Share Tweet

More Great Job, Internet!

Previous Great Job, Internet! Two New Zealanders made the yugest Donald Trump game of the election

Next Great Job, Internet! The Simpsons are back, in graph form

WATCH VIDEO FROM THE A. V. CLUB

Don t miss a story—follow The A. V. Club on:

Amazon Launches New Kindle For Kids Bundle For $99.99 – Tech Times

The Amazon Kindle for Kids bundle helps children improve their reading skills. The bundle is now on offer for $ 99.99.

The Kindle for Kids bundle includes a 6-inch Kindle, a two-year worry-free guarantee and to cover to keep the e-reader safe from scratches and occasional drops.

The original price of the bundle is $ 124.98 but Amazon is currently offering a 20 percent discount, which brings down the price to $ 99.99.

The bundle is made with kids in mind. The Kindle makes reading simple, fun and safe with the Kindle FreeTime feature that offers a lot to children as well as parents. Younger children will be able to search for stories without writing. Tapping on images can also search for related stories. Kindle FreeTime also enables children to set goals and track their progress.

“With Kindle FreeTime, children can view their reading progress for each book, track reading accomplishments for each day and earn achievement badges for reaching milestones,” says Amazon.

The Kindle is said to have the best-in-class parental controls that offer peace of mind to parents.

“Parents can have peace of mind that kids won’t access inappropriate content or websites, or accidentally make purchases as Kindle FreeTime blocks access to browsing and purchasing in the Kindle Store, access to the internet, access to Wikipedia and disables social sharing,” says Amazon.

The two-year worry-free guarantee makes it easy for parents to replace the e-reader with a new one in case kids break it somehow.

The Kindle has some important tools like a built-in dictionary, vocabulary builder and word wise feature that takes reading and learning to the next level. Kids also have the option to highlight text, such as sentences and quotes they want to remember.

The Kindle offered in the bundle does not come with a backlight. The 6-inch Kindle measures 6.3 x 4.5 x 0.36 inches and weighs 5.7 ounces, making it easy for children to carry around.

The e-reader in the Kindle for Kids bundle comes with 4 GB of on-board storage, which is sufficient to store thousands of e-books. Kindle offers more than 250,000 children’s book titles. Children will also have the option to borrow e-books from their public library.

The battery of the Kindle also lasts up to four weeks. Customers can fully charge their 6-inch Kindle within 4 hours via a USB cable connected to a computer.

Customers have the option pick a cover, which is available in black, blue, green, pink and purple color options as part of the Kindle for Kids bundle.

© 2016 Tech Times, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.

Amazon Launches New Kindle For Kids Bundle For $99.99 – Tech Times

The Amazon Kindle for Kids bundle helps children improve their reading skills. The bundle is now on offer for $ 99.99.

The Kindle for Kids bundle includes a 6-inch Kindle, a two-year worry-free guarantee and to cover to keep the e-reader safe from scratches and occasional drops.

The original price of the bundle is $ 124.98 but Amazon is currently offering a 20 percent discount, which brings down the price to $ 99.99.

The bundle is made with kids in mind. The Kindle makes reading simple, fun and safe with the Kindle FreeTime feature that offers a lot to children as well as parents. Younger children will be able to search for stories without writing. Tapping on images can also search for related stories. Kindle FreeTime also enables children to set goals and track their progress.

“With Kindle FreeTime, children can view their reading progress for each book, track reading accomplishments for each day and earn achievement badges for reaching milestones,” says Amazon.

The Kindle is said to have the best-in-class parental controls that offer peace of mind to parents.

“Parents can have peace of mind that kids won’t access inappropriate content or websites, or accidentally make purchases as Kindle FreeTime blocks access to browsing and purchasing in the Kindle Store, access to the internet, access to Wikipedia and disables social sharing,” says Amazon.

The two-year worry-free guarantee makes it easy for parents to replace the e-reader with a new one in case kids break it somehow.

The Kindle has some important tools like a built-in dictionary, vocabulary builder and word wise feature that takes reading and learning to the next level. Kids also have the option to highlight text, such as sentences and quotes they want to remember.

The Kindle offered in the bundle does not come with a backlight. The 6-inch Kindle measures 6.3 x 4.5 x 0.36 inches and weighs 5.7 ounces, making it easy for children to carry around.

The e-reader in the Kindle for Kids bundle comes with 4 GB of on-board storage, which is sufficient to store thousands of e-books. Kindle offers more than 250,000 children’s book titles. Children will also have the option to borrow e-books from their public library.

The battery of the Kindle also lasts up to four weeks. Customers can fully charge their 6-inch Kindle within 4 hours via a USB cable connected to a computer.

Customers have the option pick a cover, which is available in black, blue, green, pink and purple color options as part of the Kindle for Kids bundle.

© 2016 Tech Times, All rights reserved. Do not reproduce without permission.