Amazon has filed a lawsuit against several publishing scammers to help protect authors from fraud.

The retailer filed the lawsuit in the Northern District of California against around 20 companies and individuals which falsely claim to be affiliated with Amazon.

Amazon said the scammers produce websites which encourage authors to pay a fee to publish their work but deliver substandard services or no services at all.

The company added that it is committed to ensuring these scammers don’t continue to take advantage of the author community, encouraging authors and publishers to report suspicious communications or websites so that it can identify and take action against them.

Self-published authors can publish their work as eBooks and in print for free through Kindle Direct Publishing, without the need for third-party services, the company said.

Amazon also said it has filed three lawsuits against scammers that pretended to be legitimate copyright owners in an attempt to remove products from the Amazon Store.

“We have a consistent track record of working to stop bad actors from taking advantage of our customers, and this lawsuit against publishing scammers continues that work on behalf of authors,” said David Naggar, vice president of books and kindle content at Amazon.

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