How to Avoid Scammers who Prey on Artists

Last week my father had his identity stolen. Somebody opened a mobile cellphone account under his name and racked up a $700. The first my dad heard of it was when a collection agency called him demanding he pay his bill.

The same thing happened to my sister not too long ago. Amazon sent her a letter telling her that her credit card had been denied. When she looked into it, she also found a cellphone account had been opened up under her name without her knowledge.

It seems like buying cellphones under an assumed identity has become an easy target for criminals.

When my dad reported the cellphone fraud to the police using the online tools, he got an email back saying his claim was denied, citing the local police don’t deal with that type of fraud. Huh? Since when could the police deny someone reporting a crime? I have an image of Robocop appearing at my father’s door. “Sorry, your claim has been denied. Please try again next time and remember stay out of trouble.”

It seems to me, the very least the police could do was file it away and forward it to the appropriate people.

Unfortunately artists in particular are very susceptible to scammers, and criminals know writers and filmmakers can be easy targets because we are usually optimistic dreamers. We hear about famous people having that big break and we can’t hope against all hope that this person will be the one to finally rise us into superstardom.

I have a really close writing friend who decided to go to a traditional publisher only to find out the publisher was just a scam artist. The so-called publisher presold her book only to not send it to the printing press.

The police did start an investigation since there were so many complaints about this publisher but in the end they dropped the case.

Another of my friends had trouble with a fake agent who charged her $500 to represent her and then did nothing. Most Legitimate agents only take a fee of any sales they generate.

For my first film, Neutral Territory, we put an ad up on Craig’s List looking for a producer. Okay, I admit dumb thing to do, but at the time we did’t know any better. A woman answered claiming to be able to fund our film if only we put up a small due diligence fee of $5,000 first. Well, you know where this is going.

She was very persuasive, inviting us out to her home, showing us her website and we almost fell for it. We were desperate to get the film made and all we saw was celluloid glory ahead.

But when we did a little more research on her, we found her office didn’t exist and the number on her website lead to a taxi company in Chicago.

In the end, we couldn’t report her to the police even though I’m sure other filmmakers have fallen for the woman’s lies. Because we didn’t lose any money the police couldn’t press any charges because technically speaking no fraud had taken place.

Fraud has become all too easy to get away with. The police can’t and don’t deal with these criminals so fraud becomes a larger problem and turns into a vicious cycle. In addition, the internet has made fraud that much easier as criminals from across the globe can impersonate practically anybody and reach out to victims thousands of miles away and then melt away into the digital vortex.

Please make sure you do your own due diligence of anybody you enter a business relationship with. With social media it has become so much easier to check up on a person or a company. If you find out about a particular company ask your friends in person and online. Also The Better Business Bureau is always a good place to check if there have ever been any complaints made. You can go to their website at http://www.bbb.org and enter in a company and see what comes up.

Please check out my new novel Shame the Devil here

#avoidscammers