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Customer complaints

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Note: Scam means "a clever but dishonest way to get money" according to LONGMAN Dictionary of Contemporary English.

According to some online reviewers who purchase and complain about publishing house's, claim books has a notice inside the books that all the text books contains are extracted from wikipedia, which readers are not aware pre-purchase:

"All texts of this book are extracted from Wikipedia. [...] Please be advised that nothing found here has necessarily been reviewed by people with the expertise required to provide you with complete, accurate or reliable information. Some information in this book maybe (sic) misleading or wrong."[1][2]

[3]

[4]

It is also considered as a scam and/or fraud by many internet users over blogs and forums, since the fact that the content of the books are all extracted from Wikipedia, is not advertised through e-commerce bookstores like Amazon before purchase. Therefore the customers aren't informed of the very fact they are buying a freely available Wikipedia article in printed form [if they access to amazon.com they access to wikipedia] and signed by 3 editors who claims to edit 17.000 titles, for 6.8-189 dollars. The business model prevents them to judge whether they like to buy a freely available Wikipedia article in printed form or not, if they trust Amazon product review only. While Alphascript does not provide they are selling wikipedia duplicates in printed form, Betascript imprint of the same company provides they are actually selling wikipedia content in their product description. [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]

As of February 2010, Betascript Publishing lists 13,935 Results in Amazon.co.uk, pricing between 21.25 pounds for Abtnaundorf: Parthe, Vorwerk, Heiterblick, Johann Ernst Kregel von Sternbach, Völkerschlacht bei Leipzig, Peter Dybwad to 73 pounds (RRP 86) for William Rehnquist: Law of the United States, United States Federal Courts, Politics of the United States, Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States all of which signed by same 3 "editors" named Lambert M. Surhone, Miriam T. Timpledon, and Susan F. Marseken.[1]

VDM has also been criticized for its claimed use of electronic spamming to approach thesis and dissertation owners potential authors. [18][19][20] It usually does not edit or proofread manuscripts.[21]

VDM's business practices were criticized in a November, 2009 article in the Swiss newspaper Tages-Anzeiger, which described them as controversial and bordering on deception. The paper faulted VDM for not disclosing that the books it was publishing were academic dissertations; for publishing mediocre works that received just a barely passing grade; and for charging high prices. [22]

Note:The prices for cheapest and most expensive titles constantly changes.

Possible concerns

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Selling free content without attribution via e-commerce, is the same as, selling a replica of an ancient painting or statue for the same price as original or more, then sending the warning with a letter after customer purchased it or writing it under the statue or backside of the painting. See: Counterfeit watch in reverse manner.

SPAM and scam always find a way to mislead people and law, that is why laws changes to prevent such fraudulent acts. I remind SPAM was not considered to be illegal once, yet now it is considered as is without a doubt, especially when it is committed in bulk fashion.

The issues are:

  • Buyers are not pre-warned about copy paste issues until they buy and read the book
    • "Books" are actually freely available articles copy pasted word-by-word
    • There are notice inside books, but not in e-commerce site of amazon
  • Books are over-priced even for actual top quality books by reliable publishers
  • The scam committed in a bulk fashion for 20.000 titles
  • They sign as editors even though they do not edit the content
    • 3 people acts as if they edited over 17.000 titles in less that 2 years, which is an amount which is near impossible for them to even read the mentioned articles
  • The bulk search spam is committed via amazon's search feature
  • Info on amazon about books and reviews are fake or misleading
  • Amazon is aware of the issue and does not care the complaint mails
  • If it is not considered to be illegal, then we may
    • Warn media and public
    • Warn wiki community for awareness
    • Create a task force to bulk review, rate, warn and put actual wikipedia links to the wiki articles in amazon
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The National Library of Mauritius says at [2]:

"The principal source of acquisitions is the legal deposit system that stipulates that every printer in Mauritius is required to deposit free of charge with the Director of the National Library six copies of each publication, be it a book, periodical, report, newspaper or any other printed document."

PrimeHunter revealed a detail. Did Alphascript actually gave 6 copies for each books they printed. source User talk:Fences and windows/Archive 9#Alphascript Publishing covers

Business partners

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Alphascript lists amazon.de, amazon.co.uk, amazon.com, knv.de, libri.de, schaltungsdienst.de, bod.de, VDM, VSG, ingrambook.com, umbreit.de, reha Marketing, smartprofessionals.de, xing.de, lightningsource.com, bischoffundpartner.de as business partners. [23]

VDM Verlag Business partners Amazon.com,Amazon.co.uk, Amazon.de, Barnesandnoble, Blackwell UK, Abebooks. [24]

Unexceptionally long titles and overpricing

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As of 2010, the number of freely available wikipedia articles Alphascript offers via printed on demand "book"s in Amazon.com with no pre-notice of wikipedia, are over 17.000, which priced between 6.81 US dollars[25] and 189 US dollars[26] with unexceptionally long titles and no pre-mention of wikipedia before the purchase.

Pricing

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Review scandal by Amazon

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Mention of wikipedia

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Betascript publishing mentions they are selling Wikipedia titles in Amazon.com, while Alphascript do not.

Covers

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  • "One might wonder if a human agent has participated in the selection of the covers, or if it was a fully automated software algorythm parsing a stock-photo database." [4]

Titles

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University libraries and other scholar lists

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Schools bought Alphascript books

USA libraries VDM claims to bought VDM books [6]

  • Du Bois Library, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, MA 01003-9275
  • University at Buffalo, 235 Lockwood Library, Buffalo, NY 14260-2200
  • University of Florida, P.O. Box 117001, Gainesville, FL 32611-7001
  • University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Library, 1408 W.Gregory Drive, Urbana, IL 61801
  • George Bush Presid. Library, 1000 G. Bush Drive West, College Station, Texas 77847
  • University of Nebraska-Lincoln, Lincoln, NE 68588-4100
  • UC Irvine Libraries, PO Box 19557, Irvine, CA 92623-9557
  • University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, 728 State St., Madison, WI 53706
  • University of Arizona Library, Tucson, AZ 85721
  • Watson Library, University of Kansas Libraries, Lawrence, KS 66045
  • Michigan State University Library, East Lansing, MI 48824
Lists

Debate

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Academic circles

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Academicians, academic students

Blogs are belong to 1 professor, 1 librarian, 1 phd, 3 master student/graduates, 2 publishing professionals and 1 VDM author who VDM contacted to obtain their thesis since they claim "they are reliable enough".

VDM Author
Professor
Librarian
PHD
Master
Publishing professionals
Academic forums

Community debates

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Amazon

VDM side

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See also

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  • Formula
    • Use a wiki extension that extracts freely available wikipedia content
    • copy paste/change format or leave as pdf
    • Plagiarize sign material you didn't contribute
    • false advertise
    • sell over internet
      • via e-commerce retailers without any notice before purchase
      • bulk list 10.000s of articles as "books"
      • after e-commerce finds you customers to be scammed
  • sell it overpriced
  • print on demand
  • ship it with a notice printed in book, a new pyramid like pricing scam
  • consider what will happen if scammed customers or mass-retailers begin to sell their books via amazon to other customers, check Used Alphascript books 6,942 8,639 Results already

References

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  1. ^ Angry user comment on blog for History of Georgia (country), by Alphascript Publishing, pp. 4
  2. ^ Complain by user for Ancient Egyptian religion: Egyptian pantheon, Sekhmet, Imhotep, Anubis, Atenism, Ra, Pharaoh, Osiris, Isis, Ancient Egyptian creation myths, Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts
  3. ^ Amazon.com copy paste editorial reviews for original novel The Devil Wears Prada: A Novel by Lauren Weisberger and The Devil Wears Prada (film) by Alphascript which is a print of the same name Wikipedia article The Devil Wears Prada (film)
  4. ^ Amazon.com customer reviews
    Amazon.com: Medical tourism: Medical tourism,Dental tourism,Fertility tourism,Medical tourism in India,World Tourism Organization,Medical ethics,Patient safety,Travel nursing,Travel agency,Health tourism provider,
    Amazon.com: List of Death Note Characters (9786130090890) Frederic P. Miller, Agnes F. Vandome, John McBrewster Books,
    Amazon.com: David Archuleta: Pop music, Singer?songwriter, Star Search, American Idol (season 7), Crush (David Archuleta song), American Idol, David Archuleta (album), Billboard 200, David Archuleta discography,
    Amazon.com Customer Discussions Ancient Egyptian religion Egyptian pantheon, Sekhmet, Imhotep, Anubis, Atenism, Ra, Pharaoh, Osiris, Isis, Ancient Egyptian creation myths, Pyramid Texts, Coffin Texts forum,
    Amazon.com Reviews Written by M "CultOfStrawberry" (I wait behind the wall, gnawing away at your reality)
  5. ^ http://www.scam.com/showthread.php?t=123075
  6. ^ http://wikipediareview.com/index.php?showtopic=26847
  7. ^ http://rufftoon.livejournal.com/59337.html
  8. ^ http://www.mail-archive.com/foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org/msg08336.html
  9. ^ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:PrimeHunter/Alphascript_Publishing_sells_free_articles_as_expensive_books
  10. ^ http://www.amazon.com/tag/alphascript%20fraud/products/A1PWCH1GV7O8J0/ref=tag_stc_cust_istp_t
  11. ^ http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/dbmlist/message/189084
  12. ^ http://www.chrisrand.com/blog/index.php/2010/02/27/odd-tale-alphascript-publishing-betascript-publishing/
  13. ^ http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/wiki/foundation/180987
  14. ^ Google search=Alphascript fraud 13.500 results, but note the results contain alphascripts' copy-paste-printondemand-sell articles via wikipedia content about fraud
  15. ^ Google search=Alphascript scam 4.720 results, but note the results contain alphascripts' copy-paste-printondemand-sell articles via wikipedia content about scam
  16. ^ http://www.pprune.org/jet-blast/406673-wikipedia-book-scam.html
  17. ^ http://1914-1918.invisionzone.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=139843
  18. ^ Dale Askey: Wow, someone wants to publish me!
  19. ^ Christopher Collins: Academic Spam
  20. ^ Rebecca Jee: spam spam spam spam
  21. ^ Corporate website.
  22. ^ Die grosse Geldmacherei mit Diplomarbeiten and English translation by Google Translate
  23. ^ http://www.alphascript-publishing.com/index.php?&act=nav&nav=10054
  24. ^ http://www.vdm-publishing.com/index.php?&act=nav&nav=10042
  25. ^ Ecuador: History of Ecuador, Ecuadorian War of Independence, History of the Ecuadorian?Peruvian territorial dispute, Politics of Ecuador, Geography of Ecuador
  26. ^ United States at the 2008 Summer Olympics: 2008 Summer Olympics, Archery at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Athletics at the 2008 Summer Olympics, Archery at ... Baseball at the 2008 Summer Olympics
  27. ^ No. 15 Squadron RAF: Royal Air Force, Panavia Tornado, RAF Lossiemouth, Operational Conversion Unit, Farnborough Airfield, Royal Flying Corps, Royal Aircraft Factory B.E.2, World War I (Paperback) Product Description: High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! No. 15 Squadron (also known as No. XV Squadron) of the Royal Air Force operates the Panavia Tornado GR4 from RAF Lossiemouth. Currently XV (Reserve) Squadron is the RAF's Operational Conversion Unit for the Tornado GR4. The OCU teaches pilots how to fly the aircraft and what tactics to use to best exploit the performance of their aircraft and its weapons. No. 15 Squadron was first formed at Farnborough Airfield on 1 March 1915 as a Royal Flying Corps training unit. It later moved to France and operated the B.E.2c in the reconnaissance role, disbanding shortly after the First World War.<
  28. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Alabama-Crimson-football-Frederic-Miller/dp/6130062885/ref=sr_1_83?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1265203678&sr=1-83

Reading

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Village Pump

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Wikipedia articles that uses or previously used Alphascript Publishing as a reference

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Article talk

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User talk about articles

Article deletion discussion

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Contributors, supporters and other interested editors

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Spread the word with this userbox: {{User:Fences and windows/Userboxes/Alphascript}}

Warning! Soylent Green is people! "Books" by Alphascript Publishing & Icon Group reuse Wikipedia.

Note: I am adding signatures on my behalf over the community discussions who debated over the matter, feel free to add or remove your name or just ask me to do it

Media list

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Related news
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