Scammers are stepping up their game, yet again. They’re still posting fake job ads, but the ads themselves look legitimate. It’s not until two or three emails in will you know that the job ad is actually fake. At that point, the scammer has already collected your personal information and this can include your full name, address, birthday, phone number or even your social security number.
You have to be insanely cautious these days. If something sounds too good to be true, it ALWAYS is. Read job ads in-depth and double check for grammatical errors and phrases that aren’t regularly used in your area. Don’t give up your personal information until you’re absolutely 100% without a doubt sure the job is real.
Today’s post comes from an anonymous I’ve Tried That reader. They write…
I’ve recently discovered a scam that I found on Craigslist targeting people who want to work or work in the film/tv industry. Here’s how it goes:
They post an ad on Craigslist like this:
Film/Tv job.
Date: 2010-05-20, 2:26PM
A film crew is a group of people hired by a production company for the purpose of producing a film or motion picture. Crew are distinguished from cast, the actors who appear in front of the camera or provide voices for characters in the film. Crew are also separate from producers, those who own a portion of either the film company or the film’s intellectual property rights. A film crew is divided into different sectors, each of which specializes in a specific aspect of the production. And we at Alexis Entertainment are hiring for the following aspect of production:
– Actors/ Actress.
-Director of photography.
-Production (Producer and production assistant).
-Set Director.
-Props Master.
-Models.
-Make-up Artist/Hairdresser.
-Costume designer.
-Camera Operator.
-Production sound mixer.
-Grip.
-Gaffer.
-Best boy.
If you think you have experience in the following aspect of production and You are interested in joining our team as we are hiring for a new Tv series.Pls send in your resume.
Then, when you respond to the ad, you get this response:
Hello,
Thanks for your interest in our job offer. After reviewing your last email message , we are glad to inform you we were impressed. We will be coming to your area for a 6-days shoot (June 14-20) for some scene in a TV Soap (Note that we are not to disclose the script or more details concerning the shoot until when we believe it is safe to do so, this is due to piracy). We will need you to be there in person and be really ready to work.
Here is our offer:– Salary($250 per day)
– Free Accommodation,
– Transportation allowance.If you accept this offer,Send in the following information:
Full names:
Full Address(No p.o.Box):
City and state:
Zip code:
Phone number:
Post you are interested in:We will send your payment for the first day and Transportation allowance to the location immediately you accept the offer. The Location will be disclosed between as soon as we finalize all necessary procedure.
Thanks for your interest,
Alicia.
When you send in the requested information, they send you an email like this:
Hello,
How are you doing today? Good News!!! I email to inform you that the Sponsor for this Job has agreed to send out payment so as to facilitate workers to be versatile and be ready for the job.Shoot starts June 14-20,2010.Time: 12n00n – 8pm.
I am putting to your notice that the payment is ready.This payment will cover your first day of work ($250) and transportation allowance ($50).
The remaining funds will be used for the necessary payment required to make the shoot a success and also costume, and rights which will be paid by the Production supervisor.we have decided to USE THIS MEANS BECAUSE the Production supervisor travels around a lot and its hard for him to receive payment cause of his unstable location and that was why we have decided to add his fee to your payment so that you can send it to him as soon as you have your own payment (PLEASE TAKE NOTE).
Pls, We need you to CONFIRM that You are still interested in the offer by replying to this email so we can proceed by sending you payment.
Thanks.
Management.Note: production starts on June 14th,Location will be disclosed by few days to the first day of production.
Also, the sponsor will be sending you an overpayment , which you will deduct your pay from and send to the production supervisor.Hope you understand. [Steve note: The whole conversation has been building up to this point. It’s a fake check scam.]
This email was a red flag for me so I responded and declined to send the funds to another person but said that I was interested in working on the soap opera. I never got another response. Then just the other day, I saw a post on Craigslist:
Cast and crew needed for a Movie scene
Date: 2010-06-27, 1:06PM
This is a Urgent Notice, Nielsen inc. is looking to get together a cast and crew for a soap opera. Job opening is applicable to anybody interested in the movie industry be it a model,actor ,director, or any crew involved in a movie production..
-Must be 18 yrs and above
-Job open to anybody who is interested in Hollywood.When I responded to this ad, I got an almost identical email to the one above but from a guy named Paul Lugano.
I hope people are paying close attention to these things and not getting caught up in these types of scams which are disguised as actual jobs. People who want to work in film can hit dry spells and really need to work so they may not pay as close attention because they need the money. For the record, many tv/film productions don’t just offer up free accommodations and a transportation allowance to everyone that applies. That’s usually a perk reserved for a Producer or someone much higher up on the food chain in terms of jobs.
I hope this helps someone.