Aaron Marcus warns models about a scam where fake agencies demand $500 upfront to hold a New York shoot. Red flags include overseas phone numbers, no physical address, and stolen agency names. Legitimate agents take a percentage of bookings, never upfront fees.
Welcome to another Acting and Modeling Quick Tip with me, Aaron Marcus. Somebody contacted me recently about a job that they were being offered. They were a little concerned about it. They weren't sure whether it was real or not. So I spent a little time with them and it became very clear to me, actually pretty instantly, that it was a scam. And these people unfortunately do a pretty good job with it. I'm sure a lot of people are fooled, spend a lot of money, lose it, And it's horrible. So I wanted to share it with you so that you don't get ripped off by this. So there was somebody, they were claiming to be an agency. They saw these, this person's photos, really liked them, wanted to hire them for a job. They were hiring a number of models for this job in New York. And to make sure that they were going to save their space for this job, they needed to put up $500 and they would get reimbursed, you know, when they showed up. for the shoot and they were going to be making, I think, about $1,500 that day. And I went to the website, the phone number for the company, it's out of the country. And actually, even if you call it, it's not working. There is no address for the agency. They actually used the name of a real agency, but the fact that there's absolutely no contact information just made everything really suspect. And the other thing too is it just makes no sense. You don't have to pay to hold a space for a job, and it was a lot of money. It was like $500 to hold a space for this job. So, look, typically if things sound too good to be true, they probably are not true. You know, you've got to be really careful. People know how to play with your heartstrings. They know, you know, what you really want. I know it might not sound right, but this might be your one opportunity. And so you just have to really check things out very carefully, do some research. And the fact of the matter is you're never going to be paying an agent anything aside from a percentage from any booking, except if they are offering you to be on their website. Certainly that's part of marketing that you have to pay for, or another company's website that they use. So, I mean, those are some of the exceptions. But it's hard because they put things in a way that you really think that this is a job. So anyhow, if somebody's offering you something but you've got to pay to hold your spot, and even if somebody says, hey, we love your photos, you'd be great for this ad, I'd like to ask them, which photos did you see? Which ones did you think made me right for this particular job? And you will very clearly find out that they don't have a clue. They're just sending out massive emails. I am Aaron Marcus. If you are watching this on YouTube, please give it a thumbs up. If you're watching this on Facebook, Please like it. If you have any questions, please leave them on my Facebook page, facebook.com/howtomodel. And if you've ever experienced some scams, I'd love to hear about it. Maybe we can share information with other people. I'm Aaron Marcus, and I look forward to talking with you again soon. Thank you.
