Writer Scam Alert- Shaw Academy

I’m writing such a post because recently I’ve run into a scam with the Shaw Academy which offers online courses of creative writing and other topics and one month of free trial. How did I first encounter this scam? Through a Facebook advertisement. 

So how do they scam you? Well, when I wanted to cancel the free trial, I had to click around 5 screens of stuff that ended in a final screen that asked me to contact their Student Support Coordinator and gave me a number and a reference number for the call. So I called them the next morning during their reputed business hours and lo and behold, what I got was an automatic voice that told me their office was closed due to COVID, their business hours were Mon-Fri 9:00-5:00 AEST and told me to try again during those times. I tried a second time somewhat later and got the same thing. I then looked up what exactly was AEST, thinking that perhaps AEST was in a different time zone but no, Google told me Melbourne time zone is identical to AEST. This is when an alarm bell rang off in my head and I googled Shaw Academy Scam and sure enough it was a scam. 

Luckily, there are known solutions to this scam and doubly luckily, I chose Paypal as my payment method as opposed to a bank card (else it seems you have to go through the hassle of cancelling your card to stop them). So I did the magic over at Paypal and took Shaw Academy off my pre-approved methods list. 

But, I also read how Shaw Academy unexpectedly reopens your account charging you. So ongoing monitoring is what I will be doing till the remaining of this year and probably till next year. 

And before I go, I think I’ve also learnt to be cautious about Facebook advertisements from now on. I thought they would have vetted people before letting a company that runs a known scam advertise on their platform. But ah well… guess money is the only thing in the advertising business. 

Finally, if you are a fellow writer, remember to spread the word around so that there will be no more unfortunates taken in by this. Till next time.