Apparently word has gotten around that voice actors are made of money, or easy targets, or just naîve (or all of the above).
Or maybe the scammers I’m about to warn you about are just stupid. They certainly are persistent…probably subscribing to the belief that there’s a sucker born every minute. Or maybe they’re just certain that if even 1% of the 10,000 emails they send get answered, then they’re successful.
Either way, a familiar fraud is making the rounds again, and I guess as persistent as they can be, WE can be too.
“…You need to be in a good mental and emotional state of mind…”
Here’s the text of the initial pitch from a RYAN CONNOR on gmail:
Voice over artist/actor needed for a commercial game host show advert project. If you are interested get back to me as soon as you can for more details.I got your contact from Mandy.com.
If you answer at all, you get this response:
Thanks for your response. It is a $950 voice over (Assignment) for you). A new corporate client of mine wants to create their online website.This assignment is a copyrighted script that will be provided. We have specialists,and Contract Studio Engineer who will bring the real perfection to the job. It’s a two days project and wouldn’t take more than 45 minutes max to record for each of days.
Company: Outfront Media Inc.
Job Location:
The job and the recording will be held at a rented studio close to your location, so you don’t have to worry about traveling, the name and address of the studio will be forwarded to you before the date of the recording.
Job Description
We are creating a marketing video to be distributed through web and social media. The overall video is approximately 20 minutes in length with the game show host part being about 8 Mins also. The voice must be Smooth, Friendly fun and entertaining.
a familiar fraud is making the rounds again Click To Tweet
Sample Script:(This is an idea of what to be expected)
(VO) Uh, I’m no rocket scientist but I’d say…traffic congestion.
(VO) Well, I’m no rocket scientist but that’s a no brainer. Mass Transit is the better option.
Expectations: You need to be in a good mental and emotional state of mind. Basically this is all that is required of you, Kindly, get in touch with me as soon as possible if you will take the job. More details will be provided to you and we can continue from there. Please, no time wasting.
Let me know if you will take the job to commence with next arrangement. Please I’d like you to check your email on a regular basis, I might have updates for you.
___________________________
ALL of this is just a bunch of hogwash! Don’t be taken. The name of the scammer changes from time-to-time, but the corny pitch is just terribly bad.
I’d continue with a further dissection of this fraud being perpetrated on voice-actors, but my colleague Doug Turkel has written an excellent white paper on this, and you can find it here:
How to Recognize a VO Scam
Thanks again, Doug… your gift just keeps on giving…every time these scammers surface!
CourVO