Do not advertise on Dr. Who Online

And do not believe anything Sebastian J. Brook tells you. In my opinion, the site is a scam, and there is no question Brook has lied repeatedly to me from the very first time he contacted me.

The Setup

I was approached by Sebastian J. Brook via email on November 3, 2024. He offered a variety of web advertising on the Dr. Who Online site, claiming 25,000 daily visitors and 125,000 Twitter followers. The Twitter followers checked out; the account still has 114K followers as of today. The proposal included banner ads, ten tweets about my books to a wide audience, and a book review. There were ads visible on the site, including some from authors I had heard of, one of whom I’d even done an author chat show together with.

Most importantly, Sebastian offered a money-back guarantee equal to the difference between the advertising cost and sales. The quoted rates were a pretty big investment for me, but I was able to negotiate a lower price, and I figured with the guarantee, I’d be able to recoup losses if it didn’t work out. I also contacted the author I knew whose books were on the site, and he said advertising there had produced a pretty good return for him. Based on my experience, I don’t think this can have been true, but with the word-of-mouth from somebody I trusted, I went forward.

I signed on, sent my money via PayPal, and shared artwork. At first, everything seemed to be going smoothly. Sebastian came back with book ad graphics that were good quality, and he and I agreed to link the ads to a special landing pad on my site, where I could track click-throughs. That’s here.

The promised performance of the advertising never came through. The flow of clicks was barely a trickle, reaching only 15 all year. But what’s worse than that is that Brook never followed through on either the tweets or the promised book review posted to the Dr. Who Online site, and he absolutely failed to provide the promised refund.

Lie #1: “We also offer a Moneyback Guarantee with all our bookings – in the unlikely event you didn’t make your initial investment back by the end of the campaign timeframe, we agree to refund the difference in full!” – Nov. 4, 2024

Lie #2: “You would also get the following valuable FREE extras for booking this week:

• 10 x FREE Tweets on the @DrWhoOnline Twitter channel (125,000+ followers).
• 1 x FREE DWO News Page Editorial / book review  (125,000+ Subscribers).”

– Nov. 4, 2024

Disappointment and Lies Upon Lies

Lie #3: “We can go live next week if that works for you?” – Nov. 23, 2024

Lie #4: “…the uptick in sales should be evident within a week of going live.” – Nov. 23, 2024

After delay and some miscommunication, the ads eventually went live in December 2024. There was very little response, barely perceptible, certainly not the promised flood of sales. I was able to track clicks to my site from Dr. Who Online, and there were hardly any. On March 4, about four months into the year-long campaign, I wrote to Brook about my disappointing performance: ten clicks, no tweets, no book review. I suspect one or two of those ten clicks were me checking to make sure the ad worked.

Lie #5: “I’m still confident we can turn this around. Let me switch attention to the review and circle back.” – Mar. 4, 2025

There was no action taken in March, April, or May. On May 23, I wrote back with more stats. Thirteen total clicks now. Obviously, no apparent sales from the three more clicks.

Lie #6 (compound lie, probably counts as at least three): “I have you down for a review for June [2025] and I do think this will absolutely help. That being said, I’m going to see what more we can do on our end to give your ad more visibility. We will of course honour our guarantee, but I want to try everything I can to best leverage your ad and the potential clickthroughs and sales.”

Despite Brook’s promises, nothing happened in June, July, August, or September. On October 1, I wrote again. Fifteen total clicks recorded. No tweets, no review. Only two months left in the year term of the contract.

Lie #7: “The review is still on the planner, but we still have time to turn things around if you aren’t getting the sales yet. We will start off by placing your banner higher on the homepage. I’ll also be in touch within the next few weeks with your review. This will be sent for approval before going live.” – October 1, 2025

This response was bullshit on many, many levels. There was no time to turn anything around. He was not in touch. There was no review. There were no tweets. Brook never sent anything for approval. Nothing went live. Nothing happened in October or November, and in December, my ads stopped running.

The Scam Deepens

On February 7, I wrote to Sebastian Brook. Here’s what I said.

Hi, Sebastian – 
Here are the final stats for my advertising with you.

That’s a total of fifteen clicks for the year-long period Dec. 3, 2024, to Dec. 3, 2025. That’s pathetic, and far less than what was promised. You also did not provide the promised review of my book; in fact, no book reviews at all were published the entire year. My page that the ad pointed to was visited only 41 times, most of which were me editing it. It is likely that I had no sales from advertising on your site; the most I could hypothetically have made in sales would be the $3.99 book price times the 15 visits, or $60.

I request my entire fee refunded for nonperformance and breach of contract under your promise quoted below:

“We also offer a Moneyback Guarantee with all our bookings – in the unlikely event you didn’t make your initial investment back by the end of the campaign timeframe, we agree to refund the difference in full! You can pay securely via PayPal for extra peace of mind, too.”

You can refund to my PayPal account, or if you need to refund in a different way, I am happy to provide information.

Sincerely,

Dave Dobson

Sebastian replied with more lies:

Lie #8: “I’m sorry to hear this David, and a refund will be issued on our February pay run, no problem.” – Feb. 7, 2026

Lie #9: “The review, however, will still be delivered and I’ll get that over to you in the next couple of weeks.” – Feb. 7, 2026

On March 14th, I wrote: “It’s well into March, and I’ve received no refund, nor have you posted a review.”

Sebastian replied with more lies:

Lies #10 and #11: “Review is practically finished, but just need to tidy up the conclusion and I can send over. Refund is with accounts. Can I confirm the PayPal address that this should be issued to?”

Another month passed. On April 22, I wrote again: “Another month has gone by, and you have not refunded my money or posted a review. I’m not sure you’ve made a single true statement since I started working with you. None of your promises have been fulfilled.

Refund my money now. No more ‘working through accounts,’ no more address verification. Give it back.”

Sebastian responded with more lies, invoking a sick spouse as an excuse. I have no idea whether that’s true or not, but given how much utter bullshit he’s written to me, I have doubts.

Lie #12: “Apart from the delay in the review; we have honoured everything* so far and are committed to getting your review complete and sent over.” – April 22, 2026.

*also untrue; there was no review, nor was there the promised clicks, and there were also no tweets as promised

Lie #13: “Your refund IS with accounts and we have the correct address. It will be issued at the end of April.” – April 22, 2026.

“With accounts.” Sure, buddy. Like you have a separate accounting department. In May, after no action, I wrote again, accusing Sebastian Brook of conducting a scam. He responded with more lies.

Lie #14: “I can assure you we do not run any kind of scam, and I take the accusation incredibly seriously. We honour all our guarantees.” – May 11, 2026

Lie #15: “I can assure you your refund will be issued by the end of the month [May 2026]. I will also endeavour to still honour the review.” – May 11, 2026

On June 1, after no action, I wrote again. As will not be surprising now, Brook lied again.

Lie #16: “Please bear with me – this is absolutely being done ASAP. Will email you this week once it’s done.” – June 1, 2026

On June 10th, I wrote saying I would be composing and posting this summary of my ill treatment at the hands of Sebastian Brook and Dr. Who Online. You guessed it: more lies.

Lie #17: “If you can hold off until Monday [i.e. June 15] – we should be all square by then.” – June 11, 2026

On June 15, Sebastian Brook lied again, promising a payment that never happened.

Lie #18: “Just checking this is still the valid PayPal address for the payment later today:” – June 15, 2026

I confirmed the PayPal address, which was present at least four other places in our email chain and which he’d already “confirmed” previously on all the other occasions he promised payment and failed to deliver. He responded with another lie:

Lie #19: “Funds are pending into our PayPal – I’m told they will clear today / tomorrow. Stand by!” – June 15, 2026

Today, June 17, having received no refund, no tweets, no review, and 15 total ad clicks, I wrote the following: “Once again, total bullshit.” I received back the latest lie:

Lie #20: “Payment is pending to hit our account – as soon as it clears, i’m sending it straight to you.” – June 17, 2026

So, this final lie is basically a pyramid scheme, to pay off a person you’ve screwed with the money you’re getting from screwing somebody else. Which would still honor the guarantee, I guess, but I am not holding my breath, and done with being lied to.

I don’t think I’ve had any sales. I only had fifteen clicks from the Dr. Who Online site. I never got the promised review or the ten tweets, despite multiple promises and more than a year of communication.

While searching for a picture to post for this article, I discovered this earlier report of Sebastian J. Brook and his Dr. Who Online advertising scam written by Elizabeth Sandifer. I wish I’d seen it earlier. Sebastian responds vigorously to this post on several occasions with links to his testimonials page, which I also saw, but my experience was as bad or worse than Elizabeth’s, and Elizabeth reports hearing similar reports from others she tried to contact.

Do not trust Sebastian J. Brook. Do not advertise on Dr. Who Online.