Amazon under fire for selling counterfeit copies of anticipated book
Amazon recently sold counterfeit copies of "Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Hunt for UFOs" by Luis Elizondo. He is a former member of the Pentagon's Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program. The fake books were sold prior to the official release in August, leaving many buyers feeling scammed. Customers shared their experiences on social media platforms like X and Reddit, posting images of the counterfeit books that seemed identical to the original at first glance.
Counterfeit books displayed subtle differences
Upon closer inspection, the counterfeit books contained poorly written text that seemed to be copied from Wikipedia, unusually large margins and font sizes, and even blank pages. The covers of these fake books also had subtle differences. One Reddit user noted a counterfeit copy purchased from Amazon had the title "Imminent: Inside the Pentagon's Chase for UFO" instead of the original title and included another author's name, Didier Alarie.
Amazon removes fake copies, original author responds
Another fake version titled "The Inside Pentagon's Hunt" by Beulah Castro was reported to Amazon. Currently, no books by Alarie or Castro can be found on Amazon, indicating that all counterfeit versions have been removed. Elizondo addressed the issue on X stating, "Hi folks, I'm the only author of Imminent," and advised customers to purchase from his website or HarperCollins directly.
Buyers received physical copies at their doorstep
What's most worrying about the entire scam was that buyers received physically printed books, mailed to their residence by Amazon. This might be possible because the company operates its own "print on demand" service. Using it, authors (or scammers in this case) can submit a PDF of their manuscript, and Amazon will print physical copies of it when ordered by buyers.
