How to Identify Acting Scams - Acting Institute Explains

 

Introduction

 

The film industry is a treasure island of scammers and lots of aspiring actors and performers in their quest for landing a job get manipulated and robbed of their money. It is more likely to occur to recent graduates from drama and acting schools due to their lack of professional experience.

 

Therefore, an acting institute in West Bengal explains how aspiring actors can identify scams and avoid them.

 

Four common acting scams to be aware off 

 

i) Manager Scams

 Manager scams go something like this. A swindler, pretending to be a legit manager, approaches actors looking for a job and ask for a “submission fee”. They convince the victims that they use the funds for submitting their portfolio for acting roles and that performers should bear these costs themselves. However, in reality, these scammers rarely try to help the performers get their careers started.

Actors and performers should note that honest managers never ask for anything more than the industry norm of 10-20 per cent cut off from what actors earn while being promoted.

 

ii) Talent Agent Scams

 This scam is similar to that of the manager scams. The fraud involves swindlers acting as talent agents and blowing smoke at aspiring performers, telling them about the many superstars they allegedly have found and represented. 

 

Every actor should be wary of offers that seem too good to be true. These talent agents usually give actors their contact info and grand promises and when the performers call these agents to get information about an offer, they are asked to pay random additional fees. According to an acting andmodelling institute in West Bengal, performers should view these excess fees as clear red flags.

 

iii) Online Scams

 The Internet has become an efficient, accessible and primary source for casting calls in the digital age. Unfortunately, it has also become a hub of scammers since it is now very easy to set up fake websites and accounts on social media. The swindlers use their websites to ask charging fees from performers to post their headshots, and many, in the end, do nothing with these resumes.

 

According to a modelling and acting institute in Kolkata, performers should only use well-known, legitimate websites and avoid services that ask them to pay unnecessary fees!

 

iv) Contract Scams

 Another type of fraud that has gained popularity is a contract scam. This is a dangerous scam with the possibility of actors signing away their rights to scammers. Therefore, every performer is advised to be alert when signing off on official documents. If the fine prints prove too much to read, asking for legal counsel is the best option before agreeing to the contract terms.