With more than 120 million members around the world, Goodreads is the largest and most influential book-reviewing site. Authors listed there want to get the best reviews possible, which has led to an extortion racket aimed at some of them. As Megan McCluskey reported for Time, the would-be extortionists demand payment from some writers, or else face being “review bombed,” which means seeing their books subjected to a flurry of one-star reviews.

McCluskey recounted the story of one “bombed” author who ignored demands for money, then saw the review ratings on her books plummet. Often the targets of these schemes are people of color, especially after they make comments on social media that the bombers don’t like. Responding to the story, Goodreads, which is owned by Amazon, issued a statement that said in part, “We take swift action to remove users when we determine that they violate our guidelines, and are actively assessing all available options to take further action against the small number of bad actors who have attempted extortion scams.”