Social media has evolved and forever changed the way we connect with each other. It's no longer far fetched to imagine being in communication with your favorite celebrities and brands.
But we all know shady people are always looking for ways to misuse and abuse these platforms. Sadly, the entertainment industry isn't immune.
The ease of access to people from all over the world can make it that much more challenging to tell whether an opportunity like an offer for representation from a talent/modeling agency is legitimate or not.
BEWARE OF "AGENCIES" SLIDING INTO YOUR DMs
Sure, direct messaging is the fastest way to reach out on social media, but your first instinct should be one of caution if you happen to get a DM from an "agency." The age old saying, "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," still applies today, so don't be quick to respond with your information.
Before even replying, the first step is to go into detective mode. Check out the profile/account and see if it's legit. If it's private or has barely any followers, those are easy red flags to spot. Even if they have a ton of followers, still exercise caution -- anyone can buy followers and make it look like their profile is popular.
Google the name of the agency they claim to be from. See if there's a legitimate website (not a blog or other random web page...an actual website is what you want). Can't find anything? Big red flag. Google reviews, testimonials, anything that can provide more insight about the "agency" is what you're looking for. If the content/results you find seems sparse or the same copy/paste information across various sites, those are all major signs to delete and block that person. Don't respond, just block 'em.
DON'T CLICK LINKS
A huge red flag is if they include a link they want you to click. This is the easiest way to become a victim of malware, viruses, and phishing scams that capture your personal information. Never click a link DM'ed to you by an account you don't know.
DON'T SEND PHOTOS OF YOURSELF
If the "agent" you're communicating with asks you to send photos of yourself through DM, that's a problem. Especially if they want you in lingerie, underwear, swimwear or even nude -- yes, these idiots actually ask naïve model/actor hopefuls for nude images.
DON'T SEND MONEY/PAY FEES
This is perhaps one of the biggest red flags that are a dead giveaway of a scam. No legitimate agency needs you to pay upfront fees for anything. I don't care what they say. Not for photoshoots, not for acting classes, etc. Any mention of money and fees, delete and block. Immediately.
DON'T SIGN ANY CONTRACTS
If an "agency" reaches out via DMs with a contract offer because they just love your look so much and they can't wait to work with you, that's a scam. Sorry. Even if you're a working model/actor who has what agencies are looking for, no respectable modeling and talent agency is going to blindly offer a contract to someone they've otherwise never spoken to or met in person. There's a process of getting accepted to an agency, it's not fast tracked by throwing a contract at you from the jump.
WHAT IF A REPUTABLE AGENCY CONTACTS YOU IN A DM?
As I mentioned above, social media has made it easier for every day people to connect with major names, brands, and even celebs. Modeling and talent agencies have definitely used social media to their advantage when scouting for new faces. BUT they have legitimate ways they go about it:
Application Link. In many cases, there will be a link right on the agency's social media account (or as a pinned post with instructions) for actors and models, that takes them straight to the application part of the website. Remember, big agencies don't have to advertise heavily or reach out to find people...people come to them.
New Face Searches/Contests. These are still popular methods for engaging the public and finding new actors and models with little effort on the agency's end. But it requires you to submit your info to them or tag them in a post. Oftentimes, agencies will post when they're looking for new talent to add to roster, so it's just a matter of keeping an eye out for such announcements.
Open Calls. Thanks to COVID, not all agencies have open calls anymore but for the ones that do, they'll likely announce the dates and times when they will see people in-person at their offices. Similar to the item above, they'll make these announcements on their social media.
VERIFY IDENTITIES
First thing's first: these accounts are managed by very specific individuals. Not just anyone is allowed to post and/or contact people on their behalf. If you get a DM from someone claiming to work for a well known agency, check if their account is a personal/private one or if they're contacting you from the official/verified account.
If you're contacted by an official/verified account, that's initially a good sign. However, it's easy to imitate an agency (or any company for that matter) so you'll still need to continue verifying their legitimacy beyond that.
Make sure to get their full name and email address info. With that, you can contact the actual agency directly (I would call versus email since they get a ton of emails daily), and verify that the person who contacted you is, in fact, an employee there. If the person you're communicating with on social media gets offended, defensive, or nasty towards your request for their work contact info, that's a big red flag and you need to block them.
To be super honest, reputable modeling and talent agencies don't do extensive communications over DM. They do it by email. I stand firm in this. Are there exceptions? Of course, there almost always is but I'm talking about how businesses like agencies operate according to industry standard. And that means email correspondence and by phone. If they insist on only sticking with DM to speak with you or ask for your WhatsApp or want to do audio/video calls, that's not good.
HOW TO REPORT SCAM AGENCY ACCOUNTS
- Take screenshots of the DM convo, as well as screenshots of the profile/account. Keep those in a safe place in case you need them in the future.
- Follow whatever the protocol is of the platform you're on to report the account. Then block them.
- Pass along the person's account info/contact info/name -- whatever they've provided you with -- to the actual agency. Whether you want to do this via email or by phone is up to you but I would avoid DM'ing the agency. You'll get a faster response with phone and email. They'll take the matter from there.
BE REALISTIC
It is extremely flattering and exciting to be reached out to by a talent scout and told that someone loves your look and wants to work with you. But we all know the horror stories of model and actor hopefuls who didn't heed the warning signs and placed their trust in the wrong people.
If your social media accounts don't have that many posts or if you don't have a lot of followers and the content you post isn't really professional because you don't have experience acting/modeling, the odds of a modeling or talent agency reaching out in a DM on their own to seek you out to offer a contract 99.9% of the time isn't going to be authentic. They're very good at talking the talk and portraying themselves to be the person that can make all your dreams come true. Don't fall for it.
Even professional actors and models with large followings are targets of scammers so it really doesn't matter where you live, what you look like, or how many followers you have. Sketchy people make it a full time job to shoot their shot wherever they can to prey on people's dreams. So you've got to be smarter than them.
_____________________________
For March, I'm going to dive a bit more into the topic of scammers and how to tell real agencies from the fake ones so stay tuned for that. And Happy Black History Month!
Comments