Library warns of Book Fair scam

BOERNE — The Patrick Heath Public Library has received reports of an apparent scam targeting authors with false invitations to the Boerne Book Festival and soliciting payments for participation.

Scammers have sent emails posing as library staff asking authors to express interest and then send payments to be included as a “Featured Virtual Author” at the festival.

The emails appear to be from someone at the library, but upon closer inspection, the email address is from a domain not affiliated with the city of Boerne.

The Boerne Book Festival is held the first Saturday in October at the library. It includes panel discussions with authors, book signings, children’s activities and more.

While library staff do occasionally reach out to authors about the festival, staff will never ask for payment to participate.

Anyone who has received an email about participating in the Boerne Book Festival as a featured author and aren’t sure if it’s legitimate, call the library at 830-249-3053 What to Look For: Here are some ways to identify a scam through email: * Urgent call to action: Be suspicious of emails that claim you must click, call, or open an attachment immediately. Creating a false sense of urgency is a common trick of phishing attacks and scams.

* Spelling and bad grammar: If an email message has obvious spelling or grammatical errors, it might be a scam. These errors are sometimes the result of awkward translation from a foreign language, and sometimes they’re deliberate to evade filters that try to block these attacks.

* Mismatched email domains: If the email claims to be from a reputable company but the email is being sent from another email domain like gmail.com, it’s probably a scam. Also be watchful for very subtle misspellings of the legitimate domain name.

* Suspicious links or unexpected attachments: If you suspect that an email is a scam, don’t open any links or attachments that you see.

Similar scams have posed as event organizers with the Texas Book Festival and the San Antonio Book Festival. If you believe you have been the victim of a scam, contact local law enforcement.