More scam books to avoid

These folks have clearly set up a production line to churn out hundreds of books on all sorts of topics, all taken directly from Wikipedia, and mostly without the slightest understanding of the content.  Some of the books only show up and BarnesAndNoble.com, while others are on Amazon.com as well.  Many seem to attributed to some cobination of these people, Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, Lambert M. Surhone, Mariam T. Tennoe, Susan F. Henssonow and John McBrewster, all listed as editors.  They have books on topics from 4chan to Batman: Year one to Plant Evolutionary Developmental Biology to Pokemon.  They sometimes use Ibm instead of IBM in the name, so this sounds like an almost-automated process.

In particular in the IBM arena, watch for:

IBM Lotus Symphony by Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, and John McBrewster

IBM Lotus Expeditor by Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, and John McBrewster

Ibm Lotus Forms by Lambert M. Surhone, Mariam T. Tennoe, Susan F. Henssonow

IBM Lotus Sametime Gateway by Lambert M. Surhone, Mariam T. Tennoe, Susan F. Henssonow

Do not buy these books! They are poorly constructed compendiums of Wikipedia articles, often with no real relevance to the topic, and are churned out by a process that includes books such as 1 (number) and other such topics simply created automatically from an index.

I am trying to figure out how to flag these to Amazon and Barnes & Noble so they can remove them.  I hope they have some sort of content control to avoid such blatant scams.

What has been said:

929.1. Tim Paque (12/13/2010 08:31 PM)

I would definitely recommend complaining to Amazon or Barnes & Noble.

929.2. Bob Balfe (12/13/2010 08:58 PM)

It looks like a few of them already have terrible reviews on Amazon at least. One guys responded to the 4chan review with this:

"We believe that the quality of the Wikipedia-articles is so good that it is

worthwhile creating books with them. Wikipedia themselves give an impulse

for this. The articles published on their sites are free in every respect

and without any limitations as to further use.

Alphascript publishing is internet in form of a book. There can hardly be a

faster process. "

Which is not even the point! If I am going to buy a book, it better be much better than what I can get for free online.

929.3. Rob Weir (12/13/2010 09:01 PM)

They are prolific authors. For example, Agnes F. Vandome is listed on Amazon as authoring 98,780 titles.

But the largest is "Icon Group International" with over 400,000 titles.

These are all print-on-demand outfits, generating content either from databases or repackaging material from Wikipedia. I recall even seeing a patent on these techniques.

929.4. Ben Langhinrichs (12/13/2010 09:24 PM)

I have posted complaints at both BN.com and Amazon.com, but if anybody who has actually gotten stung could complain, it might have more impact.

(Or perhaps this is all so legal as to be unstoppable.)

929.5. Ulrich Krause (14.12.2010 05:00)

Could you post a template for the complaint, pls?

Although I guess they do not give a shit if you have not bought any of these books.

929.6. axel (14.12.2010 05:01)

LOL

Mankind will never be short of even the most feckless ideas to make some bucks.

Anybody should inform himself enough before buying a book.

929.7. Ian Scott (14/12/2010 13:25)

@Ben - I will follow up with Amazon.

It is actually not true to say that the 'XPages' book contains only one page on XPages. It is more accurate to say that what there is on XPages is printed on a single page - about 75%-80% of the page contains text with the remainder being white space.

In obtaining a refund from Amazon I had to explain why I wanted a refund and in doing so I made a particular point of the fact that when the book purports to be about XPages yet contains less than one page on the subject it is nothing but a con.

@Axel - I probably should have informed myself better but there really was no way to do so. It was a leap of faith. I would say that rather than being a poor book - and I would have tolerated it had it been a poor book - the book is in fact a deceit and that consumers are entitled to expect protection from this and especially when purchased through reputable resellers.

When I think about it now, UK Trading Standards might be interested in this book.