Yep, the scammers are back ... and they seem more desperate than ever! 

Yesterday, I had quite a few notifications from Wattpad, telling me that I'd been tagged in posts. Curious, I opened the app to see what I'd been tagged in ... and was met with exasperation, frustration and a whole lot of scammers. 

Scammers had created quite a number of false Wattpad accounts and had tagged genuine users in a post saying that they were selected for a 'mandatory security refresh' and that the users must click on a link to verify their account. Failure to do so will result in the account being 'temporarily suspending for publishing and reading' (you know, the usual!). The link then asks the user for their bank account details. Suspicious? You can bet your bottom dollar it is! 

Being tagged in one of these posts was odd enough, but to be tagged in seven ... then nine ... then eleven ... alarm bells went off. I reported and blocked each user, and have since noticed Wattpad adding a notification to both the app and website, letting users know that Wattpad would never ask for any information that the scammers had been - things like passwords and bank details. 

While I'm glad that Wattpad is taking this latest attack very seriously, I can't help but feel that it's yet another nail in the platform's coffin - for me, anyway. Add this latest drama to the list of other issues I've had over the past couple of months - homophobic comments, racial bullying and the rise in underage readers - and I think I've just had enough of the platform. 

So many other authors I met on Wattpad have either moved away or are doing so gradually and now I will be joining them. I will make an official statement on my socials and Wattpad itself. 

I knew a while ago that I wanted to move my books from there and was hesitant to commit to a date as I see a lot of readers still enjoying my stories. But the nuisances are now outweighing the genuine angels. 

On Friday 3rd July, all completed works on Wattpad (Crush, Obsession and This Christmas) will be taken down completely. It's only a weeks' notice, which isn't a lot, but I feel that if I left the books on there for too long, they will be stolen (yes, that's another issue that Wattpad has at the moment - one that they are not taking as seriously as these obvious scammers!). I also wanted to give readers, who are genuinely enjoying these stories, a chance to read them before they disappear from the platform for good. 

All three books are available on Weink for free and will be until if/when I decide to self publish any of them (I'm still toying with that idea as I'm not quite convinced yet that they would do well with Amazon or Kobo readers).

Not The Same, my current webnovel, will still be available on Wattpad and will be finished at some point over the summer. However, this story will have a limited shelf life on Wattpad before I take this down, too, but I will give notice before I do that. 

Readers are the reason I do what I do. I love writing and won't be deterred. If one platform doesn't suit, there will always be another. 

Rant over. I shall go back to writing, editing, eating chocolate and trying to decide on the next book to write.