In 2014, author Rachel Ann Nunes learned that her 1998 novel, A Bid For Love, had been plagiarized in its entirety by someone calling themselves Sam Taylor Mullens. Re-titled The Auction Bid, the book was being sold on Amazon, and the "author" was not only promoting it, but sending copies to reviewers.

Unfortunately for the plagiarist, some of the reviewers had read Nunes's book. Although the plagiarist had switched the narrative from third to first person, the similarities were unmistakable.

Confronted by reviewers about the similarities, the plagiarist did not back down. She claimed she'd collaborated with Nunes; later, she claimed she was Nunes's niece and had given Nunes the idea for the book. She began harassing Nunes, using fake identities to send nasty messages on Goodreads and post one-star reviews of Nunes's novels on Amazon. When Nunes went public about the plagiarism, the plagiarist began harassing reviewers and others who spoke out in support of Nunes. (For screenshots of this and other harassment, see Nunes's blog post.)

The plagiarist was eventually identified (thanks to sleuthing by Nunes's supporters) as Tiffanie Rushton, a third grade teacher from Utah. It turned out that Nunes wasn't the first author Rushton had stolen from. Nor was intellectual property the only thing she'd filched: parents in her school district alleged that she had also used the real names of some of the children in her class as aliases to post reviews of her own and other explicit books.

In August 2014, Nunes filed a copyright infringement complaint against Rushton in Federal court. Nearly four years later, in March 2018, Nunes won the case, with a judgment requiring Rushton to stipulate that her infringement of Nunes's copyright was committed "willfully," and making Rushton liable for the maximum statutory penalty under copyright law of $150,000. Rushton was also ordered to provide and sign an apology letter, which she did (though not without a struggle).

So copyright law and the good guys prevailed--but only at a cost of a lot of time and a lot of money, not to mention untold emotional distress for Nunes. Most authors who find themselves in this position--and many will, plagiarism is a major and ongoing problem, particularly on Amazon--will not have the financial and emotional resources to take the kind of action Nunes did.

That's what the scammers count on.

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