Goodreads has had a data breach. You may be getting flooded with emails offering reviews. Do NOT reply to them.

Goodreads has not confirmed this yet, but I have two emails associated with them and gotten duplicate emails to both addresses. At this point, more than a hundred and counting.

You may also get disturbing emails threatening your children unless you get off of Goodreads and social media. I don’t understand these, since they aren’t asking for money.

Best way to identify scam emails is by their email addresses. If it’s a series of numbers/letters with a gmail.com appendix, it’s a scam. If it has undisclosed recipients in the To: line, it’s a scam. If it sounds too good to be real, it’s a scam.

Most ask if you would like a ton of reviews. The followup is, “send me an ARC (Advanced Reader Copy) for my 10,000 followers to read.”

Needless to say, your book would be pirated.

Some will charge you for this. Paying for reviews is unethical, even if it was a legitimate email, but this scam adds insult to injury; you’d be paying to have your book pirated.

There are proper places for ARC reviews, just not through gmails.

Why these losers try to steal your money or make you afraid, I have no idea. Twisted people.

There is no reason to delete your Goodreads account. The breach has been completed and you don’t have any dangerous info other than email on their site. You may want to change your password.

Be safe out there. To be a writer is to be a target for diseased people.