Books
Scammers are targeting authors by pretending to be CBC Books hosts and producers and asking for money in exchange for interviews. Here’s how to report them.
Scammers target authors pretending to be CBC Books hosts and producers
CBC Books · Posted: Aug 06, 2026 10:27 AM EDT | Last Updated: August 6
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A 2019 view of the CBC Toronto exterior. The public broadcaster is warning people about an email scam involving someone impersonating a CBC journalist. (Michael Wilson/CBC)
CBC Books is warning of email scams requesting interviews in exchange for money. The scammers are impersonating hosts Antonio Michael Downing and Mattea Roach and producers who work on The Next Chapter or Bookends or at CBC Books.
Several CBC shows are being impacted, as CBC reported in March.
What are the scammers asking for? In some of the emails, the impersonator provides facts about the show or the CBC itself. They include detailed messages about why the author is a good guest for the show and outline potential topics of conversation. The recipient of the email is then pitched on the opportunity to participate in an interview and offered to purchase a promotional campaign package that would be launched after the interview. Sometimes a financial donation is requested to support community fundraising for CBC.
How can you tell if an email is legit? The scam emails can vary. They are all sent from an email account that is not an official cbc.ca email. CBC only uses official cbc.ca emails to chase interview guests, and our emails are formatted firstname.lastname@cbc.ca.
CBC would never ask for money in exchange for promoting an interview or use an interview to ask for fundraising for operational expenses.
At CBC Books, our hosts never set interviews up directly, only producers do that. You can see who is on the Bookends team here and who is on The Next Chapter team here.
How can you report a scam? You can email CBC Books to verify the interview request or reach CBC through our Help Centre to verify the identity of someone contacting you.
With files from CBC News and CBC Help Centre
