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When you’re new to the film industry, it can be difficult to figure out the signs of a casting scam, especially when your enthusiasm causes you to overlook signs of a fake casting call.
Here are 5 warning signs to look for in a casting call:
1. Poor Speeling Spelling and Grammar
If you see a casting call on a website or receive one in your email with very poor spelling and grammar, odds are, it’s not legitimate. There are a couple of different theories as to why many scam listings have terrible spelling and grammar:
- The person who created the listing is overseas and English is not their first language. They could have written the listing themselves or copied a listing from the internet, replacing random words with synonyms, not realizing that not all synonyms work in the same context.
- The person who created the listing is trying to bypass known spam filters that work off of specific patterns or algorithms to detect spam. There are tons of “blacklisted” words and phrases that will set off your spam filter in your email client so that you never see those messages. Spammers are always trying to figure out different ways of getting through to your inbox, and that includes trying out different writing patterns and words that have not yet been “learned” by most spam filters.
2. Vague Listings
Listings that don’t include specific details as to who is conducting the casting call, the descriptions of the character roles needed, or information about where the auditions are going to take place can all be warning signs of a potential scam. The lack of details keeps you from being able to research those listings in the first place and figuring out that the casting calls aren’t real. These are typically phishing scams where they just want you to contact them via whatever obscure method they’ve provided (such as a masked Craiglist email address) so that they can get your personal information (name, email, phone, etc.) and sell it or spam it.
3. The Pay Isn’t Quite Right
Sometimes, it’s one of those “too good to be true” type of listings where you see the promise of hundreds of dollars for a non-speaking background role or a gig where no acting experience is required that are not real. Other times, the listing asks for a very minimal fee (like $1.98) to get your foot in the door with a casting company. Either way, those are both signs of a casting scam. You should not have to pay to get an acting role (even if the amount is small, it’s like paying a company for a product they don’t have) nor should you expect high pay for a “no experience required” job.
4. The Agency Gets Too Personal
If you answer a listing and the person on the other end asks for information that is irrelevant (like your credit card info or even revealing pictures), that is definitely a scam. You don’t want to find yourself in a situation where your identity has been stolen or personal pictures sold and distributed worldwide as those situations can be extremely difficult to recover from.
5. You Feel Rushed
One common sales tactic is when the person you’re talking to suddenly starts talking really fast in an effort to get your adrenaline going and make you feel like the situation is extremely urgent and you have to “ACT NOW” or lose a coveted prize. For example, a rep could try to pressure you into paying a small fee in order to get the role you just auditioned for or a listing could be made to sound like the agency is going to make a decision by 10pm that night and you have to call to schedule an audition right away. Either way, you open yourself up to being taken advantage of when you let your emotions rush you into making decisions without doing the proper research.
There are many more signs of casting call scams, but the main thing you need to do to protect yourself is to just do your research. If you feel like you must pay an agency, be sure that you look up their credentials. You can always do a search online for phone numbers, agencies, email addresses, representatives, etc. to see if anyone else has reported them as scams. Be wise and good luck!