It's spammer and scammer free!
The truth (IMO) is that the the book publishing and promotion world is one of the worst for spammers and scammers. Maybe not as bad as crypto, but it's bad.
Here's why:
Literally ANYONE can say that they are an editor, formatter, cover designer, or promoter. They join as many groups as they can with fake names and fake pictures and they try to get people into private conversations where they make promises and offer overpriced services that don't work.
My best way to weed 99+% of them out is to not be a 'free group'. So I'm charging the absolute minimum of $1/YEAR in the new group AND IT'S WORKING.
Spammers and scammers aren't going to get their credit card out for anything, not even $1.