Once they had dreams of Hollywood fame. They believed they had a once-in-a-lifetime dream of having a big studio produce their film. They imagined red carpet introductions and film audiences worldwide seeing a dramatic film made from their book.
Then their fantasy collapsed into dust, as their Hollywood dream shattered, and they discovered they had been a victim of a big scam to get their money. That's how an article on Medium and Substack begins.
The article describes how as part of the scam, the victims paid more and more money to get the material the big studios honches said they needed to show producers and finalize a deal – a treatment, a script, a logline synopsis, a pitch deck, and sizzle reel. They did, in fact, receive very good professionally done material by a successful screenwriter. But their material went nowhere, because the scam was that there was no Hollywood deal, no executives from big production companies, and no studios clamoring for their book and willing to pay $80,000 or more for the filmrights. That part of the deal was all invented by the scammers.
They were only caught because the ghostwriter, Gini Graham Scott, who had written legitimate material needed to evaluate and green light a deal by real producers, spoke to one of the victims. As the victim discussed payment arrangements and described what the company was doing, Scott realized that the company she was working for was engaged in a scam, and she was a victim, too, since they used her reputation to lure in customers and get them to pay more and more for written materials and marketing services. The revelations led to her book The Big Con featuring the stories of a dozen victims and that led to the film Conned: A True Story, now on Amazon, iTunes, and other major film companies... When the victims' Hollywood dream ended, they lost whatever money they had invested. Some lost as much as $20,000 to $40,000.
To read the full story, the article is on Medium at https://tinyurl.com/mufahjem and on Substack at https://tinyurl.com/3xawmf8x
Based on this experience, Scott has written a half-dozen more books on scams published by American Leadership Books. Besides The Big Con featuring the stories of a dozen victims of the book-to-film scam, she wrote I Was Scammed, about several dozen scams and how to avoid them, which turned into "Con Artists Unveiled," also released on Amazon Prime by Gravitas Ventures. And most recently. she wrote Scams in the Digital Age, also published by American Leadership Books and being filmed in February 2025 as the third documentary on scams. Besides being on Amazon Prime, the films can be seen on Apple TV as Conned: A True Story — Apple TV and Con Artists Unveiled — Apple TV. And they are on a growing number of film platforms.
For more information about different scams and to schedule interviews, email or call:
Karen Andrews
Executive Assistant
Changemakers Publishing and Writing
San Ramon, CA 94583
(925) 804–6333
Changemakerspub@att.net
www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com
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Gini Graham Scott, Ph.D. is the author of over 50 books with major publishers and has published 200 books through her company Changemakers Publishing and Writing (http://www.changemakerspublishingandwriting.com). She writes books, proposals, and film scripts for clients, and has written and produced 18 feature films and documentaries, including Conned: A True Story and Con Artists Unveiled¸ distributed by Gravitas Ventures. (http://www.changemakersproductionsfilms.com). Her latest books include Ghost Story and How to Find and Work with a Good Ghostwriter published by Waterside Productions; The Big Con, I Was Scammed, Scams in the Digital Age, and Love and Sex in Prison, published by American Leadership Press; and Ask the AI Wizard, published by J. Michael Publishing.