Bagged and Tagged
Self-published Carolyn Arnold has been busy but her more than 200 fake Amazon reviews are the tip of an iceberg. We also tracked Arnold’s dubious activities on other sites, connecting friends and authors that Carolyn Arnold frequently talked to on social media to the reviews they were writing to push sales of her books.
Arnold had no fear of being caught. She was so brazen about her activities she openly discussed them and gave pointers to authors who wanted to follow along. A huge contrast from Melissa Foster who expressly tried to keep her activities hidden and quiet while she traded and bought her way to many hundreds of reviews.
However, an odd tactic had Zon Alert bloggers confused. Several times we noticed reviews of Arnold’s books had disappeared. These reviews were ones written by close associates whose activities we also were tracking, like Carmen Desousa, Ashley Fontainne, Collette Scott, Richard Hale, Ann Swann, Kirkus MacGowan, and Zach Fortier.
At first we thought perhaps Amazon had caught on to her tactics and was removing reviews. There were rumors going around that Amazon was in fact removing reviews being traded between authors as it is a widespread known problem. The disappearing reviews didn’t seem to be part of that. Instead they were reviews these friends had written of all or many Arnold books, usually some of the first reviews written of the book. To Zon Alert bloggers, it appeared they were trying to cover their tracks, to make their dubious activities less obvious.
Disappearing reviews is something we found on Goodreads too. Again it was older reviews, usually some of the first reviews written of an Arnold book, that were disappearing. Based on what we saw, we believe Carolyn Arnold used the early reviews by close associates as fodder to get even more reviews out of other associates. When these early reviews were no longer needed, they were removed.
As we discussed previously, tracking Carolyn Arnold led us to closed groups on various sites where Arnold and others traded tactics and made plans, such as for writing reviews of each others books on Amazon, rating each other on Goodreads, becoming each others fans on Goodreads, voting up favorable reviews, voting down or reporting unfavorable reviews.
Members also would get their friends and family members to review other members books.
Authors who reviewed Carol Arnold’s books on Goodreads and were members of these groups
A M Hargrove http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5338829.A_M_Hargrove
Alle Wells http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5030886.Alle_Wells
Ann Swann http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5420711.Ann_Swann
C C Cole http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4038165.C_C_Cole
Cege Smith http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5329790.Cege_Smith
Collette Scott http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4929698.Collette_Scott
D A Graystone http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5089051.D_A_Graystone
D Ryan Leask http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4874901.D_Ryan_Leask
Dixie Goode http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4418209.Dixie_Dawn_Miller_Goode
E L Lindley http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5753702.E_L_Lindley
Frederick Lee Brooke http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4856232.Frederick_Lee_Brooke
Joanna Lee Doster http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/461445.Joanna_Lee_Doster
K J Bennett http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5300157.K_J_Bennett
Karen Vaughan http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1378692.Karen_Vaughan
Kenneth Hoss http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4897439.Kenneth_Hoss
Kerry Reis http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6491046.Kerry_Reis
L J Kentowski http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5382939.L_J_Kentowski
Linda Hawley http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4868074.Linda_Hawley
Linda S Prather http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1031821.Linda_S_Prather
Lorena Angell http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4976775.Lorena_Angell
M Todd Gallowglas http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4883304.M_Todd_Gallowglas
Marni Mann http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5400988.Marni_Mann
Melinda Leigh http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5141609.Melinda_Leigh
Pamela Fagan Hutchinshttp://www.goodreads.com/author/show/682431.Pamela_Fagan_Hutchins
Rachel Dover http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5831003.Rachel_Dove
Rick Bylina http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5157782.Rick_Bylina
Rick Soper http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6872897.Rick_Soper
Robert Pruneda http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/967521.Robert_Pruneda
Rosie Cochran http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3314072.Rosie_Cochran
Sandy Wolters http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4772120.Sandy_Wolters
As parts of these operations are much like pyramid schemes, there are varying levels of activities. Authors at the bottom of these schemes, like Carolyn Arnold and Melissa Foster, recruit new authors to the top of the scheme. The authors at the bottom of the scheme became increasingly successful, the others not so much as you’ll see if you examine the links provided.
Based on our findings and tracking of Carolyn Arnold’s activities, we found the following on Goodreads. Arnold recruited friends to write reviews, give ratings, and add books to their shelves.
57 of 72 reviews of Ties That Bind were fake, written by the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
172 of 193 ratings of Ties That Bind were fake, written by the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
577 of 589 people who “added” Ties That Bind to their shelves were fake, from the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
20 of 23 reviews of Eleven were fake, written by the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
59 of 65 ratings of Eleven were fake, written by the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
94 of 99 people who “added” Eleven to their shelves were fake, from the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
6 of 7 reviews of Justified were fake, written by the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
37 of 41 ratings of Justified were fake, written by the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
74 of 78 people who “added” Justified to their shelves were fake, from the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
14 of 17 reviews of Pearls of Deception were fake, written by the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
29 of 36 ratings of Pearls of Deception were fake, written by the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
60 of 63 people who “added” Pearls of Deception to their shelves were fake, from the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
7 of 7 reviews of Sacrifice were fake, written by the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
22 of 27 ratings of Sacrifice were fake, written by the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
51 of 56 people who “added” Sacrifice to their shelves were fake, from the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
6 of 11 reviews of Assassination of a Dignitary were fake, written by the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
12 of 20 ratings of Assassination of a Dignitary were fake, written by the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
62 of 67 people who “added” Assassination of a Dignitary to their shelves were fake, from the authors friends, including the authors and friends listed above
If these numbers are enough to churn stomachs, wait till our eye-popping Melissa Foster research and the Melissa Foster Report are published.
Please don’t confuse the legitimate children’s author, Carolyn Arnold, with the self-published Carolyn Arnold. The children’s author Carolyn Arnold has written many successful books, over 100 in fact. The self-published Carolyn Arnold is the subject of this blog.