You’re invited to a modeling audition (or ‘go-see’ in the modeling world), so you prepare by making sure you have your comp cards and/or headshots at-hand along with a sleek black outfit and nude pumps. Although the audition is almost an hour away, you’re certain that you’ll get the gig – after all – they’ve already seen your portfolio and are the ones to have invited you. Right? So, you show up and notice that there are 100+ Abercrombie & Fitch, 15yr old tweens and their parents and you are one of a few adults…along with reps walking around collecting ‘information.’ Once it’s your turn to meet with the agents, the first thing they ask you is for your portfolio, at which point they advise you that you need ‘better’ shots and they have a studio where- for just $1200 – they can get you a nicer portfolio.
We’ve all been there. You take the time to prep for a go see or an audition only to find out that they are trying to up-sell you or sell you services right away. Discouraging doesn’t even describe it.
Even as an experienced actor, I had a recent incident – just last week actually – where I was ‘invited’ to audition for a hair modeling gig only to be told that I had to be willing to get some extreme hair coloring or cutting – once they’ve realized that I was a pro of course and wasn’t an eager minor with my parent to drop $1200 on the spot. You think you can’t be duped, years into this business and you tell yourself you can smell a scam a mile away. But, as we are getting more experienced these scammers are also developing more devious and undercover tactics to bank on newbie victims as well as veteran talent- due to the speed of growth of the internet.
How does one avoid getting duped? While there’s no exact formula, there are ways – thanks to technology – to filter better. First and foremost, the rule of thumb is to NEVER, I repeat, NEVER ever put any upfront money into any agency. They are supposed to make YOU money first and then be able to receive their percentage. This goes for agents as well as managers. While there is a grey area when it comes to casting director workshops – these are exceptions, as they do not represent talent therefore it wouldn’t be a conflict of interest. There is a difference between educational/professional development and an audition or seeking representation where YOU are supposed to be getting the opportunity to get paid first.
The second, and most obvious filter is the good’ole Internet. Most of the scams that I’ve avoided, took me 2 minutes. Literally. I’d get on my browser and in the search start typing the company name and the term ‘scam’ usually pops up automatically as a term associated with that company name search. So…BINGO: All it can take is no more than 5 minutes of Internet searching. However, as scam blogs have developed so have the tactics of these scammers. What I’ve noticed in the last couple of years is that the companies have bought up website links and increased their search engine optimization results to present a search with fake newsletters, articles, even landing pages to drown out and outnumber the legitimate scam blogs. So, you could very well do a search on a company and not see anything informational at all, just numerous testimonial websites, until the 12th webpage. Sneaky isn’t it? So what can one do? A counter option to this newly developed scheme is the Better Business Bureau’s (BBB) website. The BBB has a search tool for websites, I’ve found this to be extremely helpful as all you have to do is put in the company link and see the results. The link is: www.bbb.org
Talent, please do your part as well. As artists we have enough stressors to deal with and falling into these traps only sets us all back. Let’s work together, if you attend an audition/event where you felt that it was a scam – please report it to the BBB and let’s try to put an end to these dream killers!