34 Today I found out the truth about a publication that may in fact be one of the most brilliant (but awful) publication scams of all time : WORLD POETRY MOVEMENT IS A SCAM. I ignorantly entered the contest full of hopes and dreams and when I first got the news I was extremely excited and than I realized I was just another person who had been fooled into a faulty scam. They publish annually and it turns out that a ridiculously massive amount of people who enter are published, in fact there standards are actually quite low. I heard stories about people who, suspicious of the organization's credibility set out to write the shittiest poem they could possibly think of (and believe me these poems were carefully constructed to prove a point and were a well-constructed attempt to write the worst poem possible and they would be considered shitty in the eyes of many people) and, after entering there contest with a different poem got the same letter back saying that they were a semi-finalist. They add large cash prizes and try to make them selves sound like a convincingly wonderful opportunity. Here's the harsh reality: getting a copy is an option and they make the person pay high prices that they say is a discount but isn't really much of a discount at all and if you want to include a bio (which many people do so this scam is certainly well constructed) you have to pay extra to have your bio included. The book is sold on Amazon.com ,amazon.ca , Ebay, and is also sold to other so called "semi-finalists" who just want a physical copy of the work they had been publish in. There are no legit reviews for the anthology which is what made me start to feel suspicious and the fact that the places it is sold is so limited. In other words: they are publishing the work of others and selling it back to them. They are taking advantage of aspiring writers everywhere and making them buy into the most brilliantly constructed scam I have ever seen in my life and I was just another ignorant victim in their scam to make money off people who just want creditability. They want me to send back a proof but I refuse to be part of such a terrible scam so I refuse to send back the proofs that they asked for because I refuse to be part of such a terrible money making scheme and there is no way that they are going to get my money. Another alarm bell that went off that revealed the truth: it is poorly edited and includes no known authors at all. It was a free contest and I feel so thankful that they didn't demand any money before my poem was accepted for publication and that I found out this fast (it has been two weeks and at least I didn't make any commitment to it). If any other people who entered this World Poetry Movement contest, are considering entering it, or have already received their letters are reading this I advise you to do the same. I'm not the only one who feels this way: there are also many people online who have been victims of this scam. I have included some additional links on poetry contest scams I hope this helps everyone that has been caught up in this scenario or knows people who have been caught up in this scenario. The more we know the better and with this knowledge we can stop these terrible frauds from continuing to unfairly take people's money by appealing to their hopes and dreams. I have included some links below. I hope this helps anyone who wants to find out more info.
1. Bustathief.com article on fake poetry contest that discusses the warning signs of a poetry scam:
(http://www.bustathief.com/poetry-scam-fake-poetry-contests/)
2. The famous, highly deceptive World Poetry Movement website: check out all the content that's where the suspicion begins:
(http://www.worldpoetrymovement.com/)
3.Winning Writers: poetry scams, literary scams,contests to avoid:
(http://www.winningwriters.com/contests/avoid/av_avoid.php)
4.Ezine articles: article on poetry Anthology scams:
(http://ezinearticles.com/?The-World-Famous-Poetry-Anthology-Scam&id=331389)
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