My Amazon book listing was hacked

My book hasn’t even been published and it’s been hacked on Amazon!

Last month, I was preparing to debut and start pre-sales of my book. I was working with my distributor to launch the pre-sale listing on Amazon when someone created a fake, scam listing!

I had read about a proliferation of bad actors using A.I. to pirate books—here’s one article: How to Protect your Writing from Reputation Theft and another: Scammy AI-Generated Book Rewrites Are Flooding Amazon. So it was not a complete shock when I randomly typed in an Amazon search “Ali Ban The God Layer” and found this fake listing:

These scammers use A.I. to copy and “publish” books with a minimum of time, effort, and cost (unlike the real writing and publishing process!). They lift images and marketing copy to create fake Amazon listings trying to lure buyers to think they're buying the real book (not unlike how Craigslist scammers post photos of “rentals” that are actually homes for sale).

Since my book isn’t published yet and the contents can’t be fully scanned and copied, the “Real Estate Faith Lessons” book (not the correct title) by “Allie Banning” was not available to purchase and thankfully, no one lost their money. We were finally successful this week to get Amazon to take down the fake listing.

Debuting the front and back covers of the book!

Although the scammy Amazon listing was an anti-climactic false start, here in this blog post is the real debut of the book’s front and back covers! I’m also debuting ​my new author website​ and ​my distributor’s website for pre-sales.

The book is hard cover with a dust jacket. One of the many details God perfectly planned was the finish of the cover jacket: the majority will be a matte finish, but the area of the "layer" or veil on the front cover will have a glossy finish, to illuminate and emphasize The God Layer.

You can read more ​here, about my editor, cover artist, and book designer​. I also want to recognize the hard work of my patient web designer, Jamie Wilson of Empire Designs who has helped me tremendously since January.

I'm ready for more backlash

The fake Amazon listing is probably just the first of many future attacks. In my morning devotions journal on June 15, 2023, I wrote a note to myself: “Don’t be surprised or embarrassed when you face opposition because of your faith. Because of my book, there will be attacks. Don’t worry, just worship, be full of God’s love, be gentle, look to the Lord for His eternal reward. I only need God’s approval!” The Bible reference I read that morning was:

Matthew 5:10-12 (NIV)

Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness,
    for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

“Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

Just this week as I prepared this blog post, God also showed me Psalm 54: when “strangers attack me… God helps me and keeps me alive!” I learned about “voluntary offerings” (verse 6) that were given in Old Testament times for reparations for the sins of other people. I made one on behalf of those A.I. scammers!

God gave me foresight in my journal last year to wrap my heart with extra layers of protection. I've been bracing for backlash against my book because of its spiritual nature: anything God may use for good and His glory is fair game for attack. If eventually the published book gets scanned and copied, I hope at the very least, it does no harm. But perhaps, at best, it spreads encouragement to even more people!

Update 5/28/2024: If you want to order the real book on Amazon, please use this link. Please make sure that it will be coming from “JPL Fulfillment.”