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The Utterly Bizarre, Absolutely True Tale of Lisa Hackney, Literary Scammer: Part 1

Header image: Word cloud with SCAM in large red letters (Credit: kentoh / Shutterstock.com)

JAN 1, 2006February 16, 20263 COMMENTS

On December 21, 2005, literary scammer Lisa Hackney (a.k.a. Melanie Mills, Elisabeth Von Hullessem, Roswitha Von Meerscheidt-Hullessem, and several others), lost her fight against extradition from Canada to the United States. She was wanted in Arkansas on multiple charges filed in 1999, including battery in the first degree, aggravated assault, theft, possession of stolen property, passing bad checks, forgery, and failure to attend court. Hackney also has multiple felony warrants in Missouri, and was under police investigation in North Carolina, where, as "Melanie Mills," she ran a fraudulent literary agency and engaged in a number of other scams.

She was delivered by US marshals to Arkansas from Vancouver, BC, and transported to Fayetteville, where she was officially booked into the Washington County Jail on Dec. 22, 2005 (her 51st birthday). She's being held on $750,000 bond on her failure to appear on the original charges.

We have a lot of strange stories in our scam archives, but the saga of Lisa Hackney is right up there at the top of the weird-o-meter.

PUBLISHING SCAMS

“Where There’s Smoke…”

DEC 31, 2005May 28, 20224 COMMENTS

Well, this is one of those cases where if I had a buck for each time this had happened to me since 1998, I could take most of us to dinner at Outback Steak House. I got a letter the other day from a poor, benighted soul who was obviously the personification of “desperate.” She/heRead More

LITERARY AGENT SCAMS

Another Day, Another Cease & Desist

DEC 30, 2005May 9, 202220 COMMENTS

Got a second “cease & desist” notice the other night from a fee-charging agent whose company is one of those outfits that wrap themselves in a cloak of religion and Christian mission-speak, while taking advantage of writers. These deceptive operations abound in the Christian marketplace, and I find them especially reprehensible. The very Godly ownerRead More

LITERARY AGENT SCAMS

Ann’s Martha Ivery Interview

DEC 29, 2005May 9, 20223 COMMENTS

I’ve gotten permission to post Ann’s full interview with SciFi.com. It includes lots of interesting info on Martha Ivery and how she was brought to justice, but SciFi.com felt it couldn’t publish the interview without giving Martha and/or her counsel a chance to comment. (!!) Since Martha’s lawyer didn’t respond and they couldn’t find contactRead More

LITERARY AGENT SCAMS

More Martha Ivery

DEC 28, 2005May 9, 20222 COMMENTS

Ann recently did an interview with SciFi Wire on the Martha Ivery case and Writer Beware’s involvement in bringing Ivery to justice. The interview was very detailed and informative–unfortunately, SciFi Wire condensed it to a paragraph within a general article about the case. Maybe we can publish the interview here–I’m going to see about gettingRead More

LITERARY AGENTS AND AGENCIES

Call me Doctor and Other Irrelevancies

DEC 27, 2005August 22, 20235 COMMENTS

Questionable agents, who unlike reputable agents are unable to impress potential clients with their track records, sometimes try to project an aura of professional competence by attaching lots of (apparently) professional memberships to their names.

Mensaguy, whom I discussed a few posts back (his agency is a front for an expensive editing scheme), uses this technique. His letterhead prominently lists a business organization, a couple of Who's Who tomes, and, of course, Mensa. It's a good-sized list, and it might actually look impressive if you didn't realize that none of the memberships are relevant for a literary agent.

So what professional memberships are relevant?