In this YouTube video Aaron Marcus warns actors and models about two common scams he personally encountered. The first scam involves a local “New York agent” who pressures prospects to sign a representation contract on the spot, demanding large upfront fees (e.g., $2,000 and $1,000) and threatening that the person will never succeed without signing. Marcus explains how the agent uses a barrage of “yes” questions, intimidation, and a rushed contract to coerce payment. He advises viewers to trust their instincts, never sign under pressure, and understand that legitimate agents only earn commissions and modest fees for services like website listings or industry platform subscriptions. The second scam is a sophisticated “international billboard” scheme: an email from a UK‑based agency offers a $5,000 payment for a billboard shoot, then promises to send a $10,000 check that the victim must deposit and use to pay a photographer and stylist, keeping the remainder. The check later bounces, leaving the victim out of pocket. Marcus details the red flags—vague client information, non‑native English, no travel, and the overpayment tactic—and shares how he verified the scam with his bank. He concludes with practical safety steps: verify agents and clients, ask for detailed contracts, consult banks or state attorney offices, and seek community advice. He promotes his website howtoactandmodel.com for further resources and encourages viewers to subscribe, like, and share their own experiences.
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Hey, in this video, I'm going to be sharing with you 2 different acting and modeling scams that I experienced, and I want to make sure that you know about them so that you don't get swindled by these people. Okay, let's get started. Hey, I'm Aaron Marcus, and welcome to my Acting and Modeling Quick Tips channel, where I teach people how to get started in the industry and also for people who've been in the industry for a while, how to take their career to the next level. If you haven't done this yet, please make sure you subscribe, click the bell, the notification button, so that every time I upload a new video, you'll know about it. And if you like the video, which I certainly hope you do, you give it a thumbs up. That helps spread the word. If you also haven't done this, you'll see it in the notes. If you go to howtoactandmodel.com, you will get 3 free videos How to find agents, how to create effective headshots, and market yourself on your own. Okay, so I had 2 wonderful opportunities to observe and participate in these companies that were scamming actors and models, and I want to make sure that you know how they do their work so that you can avoid them and that this never happens to you. The very first one, there was an ad in the paper and it was about a New York agent that was coming to town. They were scouting to try to find local talent and start submitting them in New York. What they were saying was when I went down, because I set up a time, went down there, I was posing as someone with absolutely no experience, did not bring a headshot, didn't bring a resume. I was just talking about how I just really want to be an actor and a commercial And they were telling me how, you know, there are just so many people already in New York and they need to find fresh faces. So that's why they're coming into secondary markets to try to find people. And they— what they do is they ask you all the yes questions. That's their marketing strategy. Do you really want to work as an actor? Yes. Yeah. Do you want to work as a commercial model? Yeah. Do you want to see yourself in national campaigns that are shot in New York? Yeah. So it's a whole list of yes questions, and they're getting me very excited. And, you know, what they do is— and honestly, I don't know how these people sleep at night, but they know how to ask the right questions to push your buttons and to try to get you to do things that you know in your heart you shouldn't be doing, but you think, oh, this might be my one chance. So you've got to understand this. These people never saw me act. They never saw me in any photos. They have no idea what I look like in front of a camera. And here they are telling me that I've got this great look and they want to start submitting me for projects in New York. So, and I'm going along with this because I, I needed to find out what is the catch. What are they going to do here? So here was the catch. They give me a contract and they said, look, if you're really interested, here's the contract, sign it, we will start representing you, we will start submitting you for projects. And I'm thinking, this is great. So grab the contract and I'm starting to try to read it over as quickly as I can. And I did get some information. And what I said to to the gentleman was, I said, look, I definitely am going to do this. I just need to take the contract home because it was like a couple of pages so I could just look it over, make sure I fully understand everything. He slapped his hand on the contract, looked at me directly in my eyes and said, Aaron, if you're really interested in working in this industry, you are going to sign this contract now. I can tell you, you walk out of this room, we are not going to give you representation. We are not going to take you on as an actor or model. And I can tell you, you will never work in this industry. So if you're serious about this, you sign it now, and then we get started. And what I was able to see in the contract very quickly, there was one little section where I saw that there was like $2,000 for something, and I can't remember what it was for. And then there was a $1,000 fee for something else. And, and I looked at the guy and I said, look, I definitely want to do this, but, you know, I, I do need to take it home to look at. And once again, he just said, you sign it now or we're not working with you. And I just said, well, I'm, I'm really sorry, I'm just not going to be able to do that. And I walked out. And I'm telling you, he was good. He was really good. He knew how to pressure me. He knew how to threaten me. I'm never going to work in this industry if I don't sign this thing. So I guess one of the things that I learned from this that I wanted to share with you is, number one, if somebody is pressuring you to sign a contract for representation, Trust your instincts. If it doesn't feel right, it probably isn't. Look, if you want to get a car, you can take the contract and look at it. You don't have to sign things right then and there. And anybody who is pressuring you and telling you that it's never going to happen if you don't sign it immediately, then they're probably trying to hide something. So the main thing is Hey, look, with any agent, the only time you pay an agent anything is— and it's not just for commissions, by the way. And I know sometimes people will say that, you know, you only pay them for a commission. That's not really true. The times you will pay an agent is number one, yes, for commissions. And also if the agent says, look, I would like for you to be on my website, that's how I promote you. Yeah, there would be a fee for that. It's not an astronomical fee. It might be $75, $100 for the year, $150 for the year. But yeah, I mean, that, that, that could be the case. Or they might tell you you have to sign up with another company like Actors Access or Casting Networks or 800-Cast, you know, something like that, and you will pay a fee. So yeah, there are, you know, a couple of other instances where you might be paying an agent a fee, but certainly you're not going to be paying a lot of money for representation, which is what these people were doing. So anyhow, that was one scam that it was a really, really good experience. Here's the second one. These people, it was very sophisticated, got an email. There was an agency that was based in the UK and they saw my work. They didn't say where, they didn't say what they saw, but they saw my work and they were very excited. And they saw that I was really good, very talented. They had a campaign that was going to be running on billboards throughout Europe that they wanted to hire me for. So Once again, my antennas are up. This doesn't make any sense to me. I don't know these people. They didn't give me any specifics. They didn't give me any details. But I wanted to see how did they do it so I can share it with you. So I'm going along with them. I said, this sounds great, love to do it. And I said, you know, what kind of fees are involved, you know, things like that. So they said that they would be paying me $5,000 for the billboard. And I said, this sounds great. And so then I followed up with them and I said— because once again, I knew it was a scam right away, but I just wanted to play along to see how they do things. So I said, I definitely want to do this. Sounds wonderful. How long will the billboards be up? Who is the client? Because I want to make sure— I knew they weren't going to tell me, but I did. I'm just asking all the questions that they probably were not asked by anybody else. And I said, and by the way, before I agreed to this, because they were talking about some dates, I need to be flown to the UK. And I told them the airport that I wanted to fly out of. And so I got an email back. And the other thing too that was interesting, their English, it was pretty good, but you could tell that English was not their first language, just the way that they used some of their grammar and some of the wording. So it was very clear to me this is in somebody's basement or they have this company set up where they're just shooting out these emails and I have no idea what country they were from. But here's what they did, and this was really incredible. They said, well, because we have so many models shooting all across the country, instead of me being flown to the UK to do the shoot, they were going to bring the photographer to me. I thought, okay, so how exactly is this going to work? And they said, well, they're gonna have a makeup artist and a stylist and I'm sorry, the makeup artist and stylist, one person, and the photographer come to my city, and then they would arrange a location, do the shoot. I said, great. I said, okay, so what's the next step? And by the way, they did give me information as to how long it would run. They never did give me the name of the client, and I didn't want to push them too hard because I wanted to follow through. I was wondering, how, how does this scam work? They were going to pay me $5,000 for this thing. So here's what they do, and it was really fascinating because they're sending photographers all over the place with the makeup artist and stylist. What they were going to do is they were going to send me a check for $10,000, and what I would do is I would pay the photographer $5,000 and the makeup artist And then I would keep $5,000. That's how they do it. And so I said, well, this sounds wonderful. I went to my bank and I wanted to speak to a manager there just to kind of find out, you know, how this stuff works. I said, look, there's a scam that's going on and they were talking about sending me a check for $10,000. I would keep $5,000. So here's what happens. They will send me a check for $10,000. I will deposit it. I will write out a check for $5,000, and in a day or two, you know, after the shoot is done, the bank is going to contact me and say, this check is no good. And I just paid $5,000 out of, out of, you know, my own pocket. So it's It's a well-run scam. And look, if you are ever being offered something that just seems too good to be true, it probably isn't. Some of the important things that you would want to ask just to make sure that this company is legit is finding out who are you going to be doing the shoot For, you know, what, what is the company, who's the client. Maybe you could even reach out to the client and say, hey, look, I know we're going to be doing a shot together, just wanted to get some, some details, um, you know, just to make sure that it's really happening. And the other thing too is— And the way that I worked it out was I said, look, this sounds great, definitely want to work with you guys, um, I just don't feel comfortable paying a photographer That's not something I do, but please send me the check for $5,000 and love to do the shot with you. And never heard from them again. So the important thing is when you are hearing things that sound incredible, take a step back and think about it. Because sometimes, you know, as an actor and a model— and I get it— sometimes we will do things That don't quite make sense. You know, we're thinking this might be our one opportunity. I know it sounds a little weird and a little strange, but this might be my one shot and I'm going to take a, you know, a gamble on it. So once again, trust your instincts. Maybe you can talk with some other people in your area to see if they've experienced anything like this. Maybe you can contact your local state's attorney's office. And find out if anybody else has raised a complaint or an inquiry about this. I did, by the way, and they said, yeah, there were a bunch of people that called in and talked about this type of scam. It might not have been the same company, but it was done in a very similar way. So anyhow, I just wanted to share those 2 with you, and please just be Smart, be careful, be logical. I'm not saying sometimes you don't take chances. Sometimes you do things that are outside of your comfort zone, but just make sure you're doing things in a really smart way. And look, I can tell you, if you ever have a question, feel free to reach out to me. If you have a question about whether, you know, something sounds legitimate or not to you, you know, I'm more than happy to try to help you with it. You can just go to my website. howtoactandmodel.com, and there's a contact button, and you can always reach me there. So once again, uh, please, if you haven't subscribed, click the subscription button. If you'd like this, click the, uh, like button. And I wanted to ask, if you have ever experienced a scam, please share it with other people here so that way we can all learn from each other and help each other. And feel free to share this link throughout all your social media platforms. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I can't wait to talk with you again soon. See ya.
