THIS ARTICLE IS NOT JUST RELEVANT TO WRITERS. Poetry.com also scams photographers and artists through websites like Picture.com – which is ALSO A SCAM.

As hopefully many of you know already, Poetry.com are scammers. They rip people off intentionally. (There is more information about Poetry.com in the links at the bottom of the news article.)

Recently, they have even attempted to invade deviantART. They’ve spammed people with notes and comments, doing whatever they can to encourage people to submit poems to their contest in which everyone seems to achieve at least second place. The supposed prize for this contest is 100k. Some people, no doubt, are going to fall for their scam because of it all of the spamming they have done on Poetry.com. They’re going to be so delighted that they’ve placed in the contest that they, or their parents, will give away money because of it.

That brings me to the point of this news article: Please, help heighten awareness of the fact that Poetry.com is a scam. Help stop innocent people losing their money for no good reason but to fill the pockets of greedy bastards who have no sense of morality. Does that sound like a fair thing to ask?

“How can I help?” I imagine you to be asking. Well… here’s how:

WHAT TO DO*

Tell people. - If you see anyone talking about Poetry.com (on or off of dA) that seems as if they may seriously consider entering the contest, warn them away from Poetry.com: Tell them it’s a scam.

Refer people. - Send people who might become interested in entering poetry.com or picture.com to links with information about how Poetry.com are scammers – the ones at the bottom of the article are probably your best bet. Think of it like a referral scheme: Cheap, and it gets you something eventually. In this case, it gets you peace happiness in yourself.

Add information to your journal. - Add information to your deviantART journal warning people away from the website. If you have a chatroom, it would also help greatly if you add links to the topic/header of the chat! (especially if it’s a lit chatroom!)

Favourite this article. - As well as the ones at the bottom of the article.

If you are subscribed, add the following stamp to your shoutboard collection/journal:



Be innovative. Try and think of new ways to spread the word without sinking to the level of spamming. I know that some people have created poems about Poetry.com and added them to their journal.

Be helpful. - Tell me if you are aware of any new Poetry.com spam accounts created on deviantART, so that I can add them to the list of account usernames I am gathering in my Poetry.com dA journal.


WHAT NOT TO DO.

Here’s some of the definite ‘must-not’s:

DO NOT….

Fall for the poetry.com scam yourself.

Recommend other people to Poetry.com in the hopes that they enter it and fall for the scam – no matter how much you might hate them. (Sorry for being a spoilsport. )

If you try to enter at all. enter the Poetry.com contest with your main email address – you can be sure that the email address you use to submit your poem will be added to so many mailing lists that it’s not remotely funny.

Try to do the right thing of spreading the word about how Poetry.com is a scam, but end up just spamming pages of people you don’t know with warnings.

Forget that the Poetry.com scam is not exclusive to deviantART, and that people outside of dA are just as likely to fall for the scam as members of dA.

Stop reading this article until you reach the end. There are still important bits left, y’know!



Poetry.com spam accounts created on deviantART so far

I have been gathering a list of all of the spamming Poetry.com accounts that have (so far) been spamming scams on deviantART. If you know of any more, please note me with the links or comment them in my Poetry.com dA journal.

This list is hopefully helpful to people who have been spammed somehow and are not sure whether or not the account they have been spammed with is related to Poetry.com, or linked them to a scam. It also shows the large scale of the scam spamming that has been going on. Just think how many people have been noted/commented, altogether, by all of these accounts! (every account has probably commented/noted at least 1,000 people on average – some of which might be the same person.)

Here is the list so far:

!laurythompson
!YouShouldWin
!futureartcritic
!jessicahammilton
!misselliot
!maryhalden
!christinelawrer
!tinatylert
!alicebergen
!michellepfeffer
!elisajunberg
!patriciakhoeler
!norahuntelar
!britneyrogers
!christinakoller

I know that there are more accounts out there that have been used, but obviously I can’t exactly ask every member of dA if they have received a note/comment, and if so who it was from. I need people to tell me if they have received notes/comments so that I can add names to my list!



Appreciation

Believe it or not, I’m not the only one who’s been helping out with raising awareness of Poetry.com!

I know that a lot of people have helped, but some have done a lot – or a little that has gone a long way. Here’s a select few (four, to be exact) people who have helped massively at some point – that I am aware of:

`bananaprincess - She posted a very informative article about Poetry.com around a year ago, which helped many people. A link to the article is at the bottom of this article!

*salshep - Salshep has helped tremendously in terms of the recent scam spam on dA. She posted a warning news article about the scam spams – again, this is linked to at the bottom of the article – and warned one hellova’ lot of people away from Poetry.com by posting on spammers userpages stating Poetry.com was a scam – right from the start of the spams. This warned a lot of people who then went on to warn others!

$realitysquared - Along with the rest of the Copyright and Etiquette administration team, for doing such a good job at dealing with the scam spammers!

$hexentanz - For pretty much exactly the same reason as above: Doing such a good job at dealing with the scam spammers! As the community Help Desk manager, she’s done a great job dealing with all of the reports of spamming accounts, and dealing with them suitably!



THE LINKS!

Well… I’ve been talking about ‘the links at the bottom of the article’ for the rest of the article, and therefore, now you’ve just about reached the bottom of the article (if you’ve read it all so far… thanks!) here are the links I was talking about!

dA News Articles:

Bananaprincess’ article: “The scoop on Poetry.com”

Salshep’s article: “WARNING: SCAM-SPAMS!!!”

realitysquared’s article: “CEA Update for September 5th, 2007” - one note about this article: I am fairly sure that visiting Poetry.com will NOT give you viruses – see my long, boldened comment on the first page of comments of the article for more information as to why I am so sure of that.

Other links:

Elite Skills: Poetry.com Scam details

The story of two scam victims who discover that Poetry.com isn’t all it’s made out to be

An interview of a disappointed attendee of the Poetry.com conference.

How to have your work removed from Poetry.com

The Wergle Flomp Poetry Contest



Well…That’s it! Hopefully you’ve found this article informative, useful, and will do whatever you can to help spread the word!

^{*Obviously, no-one can be expected to do all of the suggestions I have made, but doing even one of those things will help make a difference. Doing as many as you can will be all the more appreciated!}