Keeping Safe from Scams

In recent years criminals have attempted to steal money from authors, and others, with false offers that pretend to be from Wigtown Book Festival. Many scams are highly sophisticated, using AI to collect information to create messages that seem well informed about the festival.

You may already have encountered similar scams elsewhere as they are common across the book festival sector and in many other areas of life.

There are some straightforward ways to help keep safe from fraud:

• Check the email address. Emails from us will come from an email ending in @wigtownbookfestival.com
• If an offer seems too good to be true, it probably is.
• If it asks for additional money it’s a scam.

Authors might find it useful to look at the new guide on protecting themselves from scammers produced by the Society of Authors and the Writers Guild of Great Britain.

If you have doubts about a message please call us on 01988 402036 or email [email protected].

We are not aware of any security breaches to our emails, websites or ticketing platform. Tickets for our 2026 events can be purchased as usual from our website, our Box Office at Number Twenty-six in Wigtown, or via phone - 01988 403222