They almost had me! You know when you get an email and something just doesn’t sound right in it? Like someone is trying to say something but isn’t doing it quite right? Well, I got one of those and I let it ride to see if it was for real. I did my research and looked up all the details I could on the company. Things looked good on the company front but something about the details and the person that had contacted me just didn’t sit right. Then this morning the details of what I was going to be doing changed dramatically. Here’s a bit of story and why it was so interesting.
Received a text from ZipRecruiter about emailing someone about a local film production they wanted me to work on. I emailed the person and started getting details about the production and what I’d be doing. They said they would be sending me a check for my work for 3 days and that we would meet up before anything started. Sounded a bit odd to me but I wanted to see if I could get more info. I sent over some info and began discussing how things were going to happen. One thing I thought that would throw a wrench in things was that I’m about to go on vacation and didn’t think I could do the work with them. But they said that filming wouldn’t start until after my return. I also told them that I work an evening job the days the filming was happening to see if that would turn them away. Without hesitation, they said it wasn’t an issue. More skepticism sets in and I’m beginning to think things aren’t right, so I research the company a bit more and it seems legit. So now I know someone is scamming because the amount that I’m being sent has increased. I show the latest email to Elissa while we’re laying in bed and start discussing it. She searches for film production scams and finds a few write-ups about a few that have been going around. With the last email, we can really see what they are trying to do so now all we’re going to do is try to capture as much info as we can.
I go back to the companies website and I send them an email about what is going on. Within a few minutes, I get an email back from the owner stating they have no clue of the person and curious about the details. I send them the email trail so they can look over it and see if there are any details that they may see that could indicate where or who is doing this. The company is located in Japan and they said that it was late and they are going to contact their lawyer in the morning.
It seems as if the oldest profession, besides hooking, is a Con-Artist. As soon as this great invention, we call the Web was created, people find a way to abuse it. I guess that’s true for everything really. We travel on this new land, new country and we start selling off products that are fake or have no actual use, just like the Snake Oil salesmen used to do out the back of his wagon. Con-Artist, pulling the wool over the eyes of the common people just so they don’t have to apply any skills to make an honest living. They have a skill but they misuse it, the salesman, the other oldest profession. Someone that was a humble individual that had a skill or a love and used it to produce a product to sell to their fellow man, so that they could feed their family. Humans screwing over Humans…
As I was writing this, the mail came and guess what I received. A nice little check for me to deposit into my account. YAAY! I have lots of money now! I can buy this and some of those and one of these things. Elissa called me and said I should call the bank of the Cashier Check and see if they know. Talked with the kind lady that gave me info about the check and we confirmed it was a fake. So much for having fun on a production set again, soon.
I’ll update Y’all on what happens with these scammers when we can track them down. I’m hopeful that writing this and others that write about these scams will be able to help put these people away and stop them from taking advantage of others.
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