The world is full of excellent people who care more about their fellow man than about their own welfare. Unfortunately wherever there is good, there is also evil standing close-by devising ways to poison the good.
Now that we’ve covered Good vs. Evil 101, let’s discuss how it relates to the entertainment industry. If you have a website, or are listed on a directory like GigSalad.com, then you have undoubtedly received leads for gigs. A certain percentage of those leads will be non-serious, inquisitive people just poking around, some will be low-budget quickie gigs, and some might be high-end, high-dollar engagements that open the doors to greater things in your career. And at the bottom of the pile, straight from the seventh level of Hades, are outright fraudulent requests from slimy individuals who try to rob you of funds, identity or both.
Many posing as “event planners” will appear to solicit your services and will send you excessive “up front” payment in the form of money orders, cashiers’ checks or bank drafts, have you send them the difference, then cancel the payment they had originally sent you.
They will also try to collect sensitive information from you by telling you they will book your hotel or flight, then use it to do terrible things with your identity.
PLEASE BE AWARE OF ALL SUSPICIOUS REQUESTS, from requests originating from ANY SITE or email address. Never give sensitive information and do not send money back for any reason.
Here’s are a few examples of outright fraudulent requests made to members in the past. We were able to intercept it an alert our members, but here’s what they said:
From bob.max101@yahoo.com
(no phone number listed)
Goodday,
My name is Bob, i am preparing for my wedding which will come up on the 15th of august 2009.. by 10;00am here in 124th Avenue Miami, Florida 33183 , As i was searching for the best comedian to make the day a memorable day for me and my wife. I saw your advert and i am really impressed about your performance. and you are going to start by 12:00pm and end 2:00pm, How much will you collect if you are to entertain my guess with the travel expenses….i am having 50 guest for the day.
Hope to read back from you.
Greetings to you,I am Mr.Robbin Mart from Louisville, KY.I will like to have your service for my son’s Philip Wedding ceremony with her wife, named as Jessy.I found you at webpage saladgig.I am making an enquiry in regards to your services on my son’s Wedding,We are having the party at his wife residence,in which i will like to get your price for 4 hours of service and we are having 120-140 guests in which the party will start at 11:00am by recption which is about 5 mins drive to the party venue and ends the party till 7:00pm and i will like the best of your performance on that date.Also let me know if there will be any little charges for your flight fee.What time will you show up for my event? What type of equipment do you use? Are you licensed, registered and insured? Do you want me to book a near by hotel we have here for you?And are you coming alone to perform at the party?Also i will like to know if you are available for the date 5th or 6th of July 2006. I await the best of your message soonest.The party venue is @ 4410 Shepherdsville Rd Louisville, KY 40218 Get back to me asap. NOTICE: Email me Reply me to robbinmart3@yahoo.com Engr.Robbin S. Mart.
Here’s a response one of our members received when he followed up with a fraudulent lead:
Thanks for the mail,am very happy that you will perform on my wedding,the date of my wedding is on (9/20/2009).,i will give you the location as soon as the location is ready,i told you in my last mail that am not in state for now. Since your fee is $250 and i will add $150 as a compensation from me making $400, i want you to reserve the date for me.I have a client that will send you a cashier check or Money Order of $2500. I believe true transaction should be based on trust that is why i said he should send you the payment,as soon as you get the money you will deduct your fees and send the balance to my Wedding Cake Baker vendor via western union money transfer. So i will like you to get back to me with your Full Name and Full Address with your Cell And Home And office phone #,.Looking forward to read from you Soon
Thanks God Bless
Here are a few telltale signs of fraud:
- Requests that you contact client by email only;
- Requests made that do not apply to the services you offer;
- Messages from event planners outside North America;
- Emails with exceptionally poor grammar;
- Event planner who requests to pay you up front and asks for a check from you for the difference;
- Inquiries with invalid phone numer;
- Leads you receive through your website or ours with missing data such as EVENT LOCATION. A simple test is to call the phone number they provide. If it’s a generic answering system, a disconnected number, a wrong number, or if there’s no number at all, be very cautious.
Nigeria has been notorious for sending stuff like this out, but it really comes from everywhere.
We have security measures in place on Gig Salad to screen fraud, but since even the slimiest of folks can be clever, we cannot cannot guarantee the validity of requests made through contacting you through the website. Please use caution when responding to inquiries through this site (or other websites) that appear to be suspicious.
PLEASE CONTACT US AT 1-417-889-9909 IF YOU ARE UNSURE ABOUT THE VALIDITY OF A REQUEST that has been made to you.
We’re here to help!
-Steve & Mark
3 responses so far ↓
1 Steve // Jul 14, 2009 at 8:11 am
I can give you some additional tips regarding fake gig requests because I had that from another source.
These scammers are often operating from the UK and are Nigerian nationals. They give you a location for the party that turns out to be a home for sale that can be found on the Internet. They will tell you some kind of story, in poor grammar, about party expenses or something that they were paying for but mixed up checks and gave your deposit check to them and had sent out the other check to you. They ask that you cash the mistaken check, take out X amount of dollars for yourself and send the balance to the 3rd party.
I had such scammers try this on me and I played along because I was on to them and wanted to see what they do. I am a caricature artist. The scammers steal someone’s identity and then send a check, supposedly via Wells Fargo or other bank. What I immediately noticed when the check arrived was that it was counterfeit. It had a 3rd party’s name on it – in my case Wells Fargo Bank. I google mapped the home and found it. I am an artist and can spot fraudulent graphics when I see something like this: the printed graphics on the check were crooked. I showed the check to an agent of Wells Fargo and spoke to an investigator. They knew the group who were perpetrating the scam.
I continued to play along as if I had forgotten what I was supposed to do and so frustrated the scammer that they gave me a UK address, which I forwarded on to the investigator. In the end, I wasted the scammer’s time, thus tying them up and delaying their chance to scam others and got an address that would be of help to Wells Fargo to track down the scammer group. I also spread the word throughout the caricature artist community. You are helping others by spreading the word, since scammers thought they could hit the entertainment community.
Caricature artists stopped receiving these scams because we all got together and put the word out. It also prevents someone from initially reserving a date with the scammer and then turning down legitimate work that may come up for that same date.
Also watch out for e-mail that has mismatched fonts within the mail. The body of the text would be regular and the name and city location will be in another font, thus indicating the scammer is mass generating the e-mail and inserting different info into the name and location. A typical Nigerian writing style will include the word “please” abbreviated as “pls.” The grammar is atrocious and they tend to not give out a phone number. Sometimes asking for the number will stop the scammer immediately.
-Marlene
2 Steve // Jul 14, 2009 at 2:53 pm
Here’s some more GREAT stuff from Marlene Goodman, a caricaturist in Wheaton, Illinois, who played along with a scam artist for a while until they finally gave up.
(Marlene’s PromoKit is here)
I got an e-mail from a “Keisha Gordon” with a request for me to be a “caricature at her next party.” (red flag)
I said I was available and would reserve the date. At first I didn’t pay attention to the mixed fonts but got suspicious immediately from the poor grammar and the odd abbreviations. (red flag) It took 3 e-mails before I could get an address from her and never got a phone number. (red flag)
The premise was that Keisha was on a trip in the UK and had ordered party supplies from a 2nd party in NYC. She said she’d send me a deposit to secure my services and would be back in town a day before the date.
A few days later I get an e-mail stating that she had mixed up checks, that she had sent my check to the party supplies people and their check to me – of course made out to my name (red flag) in the amount of $2,500. (RED FLAG)
She said to take out $100 deposit for myself, add another $50 for my trouble, cash the check and send a check to the party people address in NYC.
(who pays that amount for a home party? D’uh!)
I finally got a home address for the party, googlemapped it and drove to the house 2 miles away, only to discover it was listed for sale. It was quite a fancy house, too and easy to find on the Internet. THAT’S HOW THEY GET A REAL ADDRESS.
I got the Wells Fargo check and noticed the graphics were a little crooked. It was from a 3rd party (red flag) in California. This also told me they stole that 3rd party’s identity. (do we need any more flags?) THE CHECK IS A COUNTERFEIT.
I contacted the bank after I googlemapped the house on the check and found the closest Wells Fargo to that CA local. I contacted a Wells Fargo investigator. I talked to an investigator who said they knew of this group – Nigerians in the UK -and they’ve been trying to catch them but they needed a UK address. (you’ll love this)
I played along with Keisha and acted l knew nothing. I waited till it was getting really close to the party date and Keisha was e-mailing daily, sounding desperate. “Have you mailed the check yet?” Finally, I told Keisha that I was kind of not used to doing this and was new at this type of thing – I asked if she could tell me again where I was supposed to mail that check? Was it NY or was it California like on the check? In what was finally a frustrated moment for Keisha, “she” (bet it was not necessarily a woman) told me to just mail the check directly to England and GAVE ME A UK ADDRESS.
I used googlemaps again and saw a satellite view of the location. It did exist. It was possibly a warehouse or an apartment. I forwarded the info the the Wells Fargo investigator who told me, “You’re good!” and the party date came and went and Keisha closed the e-mail box. Hahaha. I was keeping everyone posted on the progress with the caricature community through a forum and locally. A couple of other artists in Chicago did get the Keisha mail and no one got scammed.
This ate up “Keisha’s” time and possibly made them nervous or in fear of being caught. Who knows? I never got a follow-up but I never got another scam mail.
Scam busters say to do this – eat up their time. It delays them from scamming others.
OK, there you are. Happy scambusting!
3 Dan // Jul 21, 2009 at 3:55 pm
I get the same email from “Bob”. They email comedians as well.
Here are the emails:
http://forum.419eater.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=168961
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