As an actor, Timothy Laurel Harrison embraces risk. She once traveled to the home of a director she barely knew and was sequestered in his basement for a whole weekend, working on a horror film. She not only lived to tell the tale, she recently learned that the film will be distributed later this year.
For Harrison, however, unconventional doesn’t mean careless. While she was eager to work with the horror director, she managed to sniff out a ruse that wormed its way into her email about a year ago. She had applied for a commercial job on Backstage and was quickly told that she had booked it, without an audition. She then received a check for more than $1,000, along with instructions to deposit it and remit the majority to a third party. Suspicious, she called her local police precinct, and without hesitation, a police officer told her it was a fake-check scam.
Though Harrison sidestepped disaster, other actors and models over the past three years have not been as fortunate. According to a federal criminal complaint announced in late January by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District New York, more than 20 performers have fallen for the scam, depositing checks into their bank accounts only to find out later that neither the money nor the job opportunities were real.
Thomas Irigoyen of Kingsburg, California, and Nicholas Ofei Cofie of the Bronx, N.Y., have been arrested in connection with these schemes; they are accused of defrauding or attempting to defraud performers. Each man was charged with one count of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud, and Cofie received an additional charge of wire fraud. If convicted, the men could face up to 20 years in prison, though sentences can be shorter than that, particularly for first-time offenders. Attorneys for the accused have declined to comment.
According to the complaint, an additional 25 actors or so were contacted by fraudulent producers, who pushed similar scams. The complaint accuses Irigoyen and Cofie of victimizing at least four people and mentions at least 51 other instances of similar schemes. It was unclear from the criminal complaint, unsealed on Jan. 30, whether Irigoyen and Cofie are accused of stealing or attempting to steal money from all 55 performers.
Investigators for the Southern District of New York and the New York Police Department have not returned calls or emails seeking comment.
Backstage was one of many casting sites used by the alleged scammers. Luke Crowe, vice president of casting for Backstage, states that the website sees an average of 280 attempts “to post scam-related casting calls,” but that a mix of technology and human intervention thwarts “more than 95 percent” of fraudulent listings from ever being published.
He added that Backstage has worked with law enforcement many times over the past several months, including with Detective Anthony Napoli, who as a member of the NYPD, also works with the federal Department of Homeland Security Financial Crime Task Force. Napoli is one of the lead investigators on the case against Irigoyen and Cofie.
READ: How to Avoid a Casting Scam
“We briefed law enforcement about everything we knew about the most prevalent and recent scams plaguing the acting community,” Crowe stated. “And we shared a lot of in-depth information with them related to the scammers’ attempted Backstage accounts and activities to help them with their investigation.”
This is the second detailed story that Backstage has run on scams within the past two years. In September 2017, about 25 actors were ensnared in a con that worked similarly to the ones outlined in the federal complaint. Actors are promised a job without an audition and sent upfront money, with most of it to be remitted to a third party to pay for things like wardrobe, hair and makeup, or insurance.
Here’s how the scheme works, according to the criminal complaint and several actors who Backstage has interviewed during the past 18 months:
- The fake producer advertises a phony acting or modeling job and gets performers to submit materials.
- The producer responds quickly, telling their victims they have been cast for the job and sends them a fake check for thousands of dollars, with instructions to keep a portion of the money as an advance.
- The victims are then supposed to transfer the majority of the proceeds to another account, as payment for a stylist or wardrobe consultant, who will help the performer look the part for the job.
Oftentimes, the performers are able to withdraw the money from their accounts and transfer it before the bank realizes that the check was phony. The victims then have their accounts frozen while the bank tries to untangle the mess. Sometimes, the victims are responsible for returning the money.
The scheme that Irigoyen and Cofie are accused of was vast. For example, a U.S. Postal Service account connected to Irigoyen was charged with postage for “approximately 471 envelopes,” the complaint stated.
“It’s so scummy to do this to people,” Harrison says. “Also, for a lot of actors, who are struggling paycheck to paycheck…it’s criminal, but also on a level of cruelty that is unpardonable in my mind.”
That is what makes performers susceptible to these kinds of scams—they work in a business that rewards, and often requires, risk. Add in financial vulnerability, and one can see how actors and models can get caught in a perfect storm.
Upfront money for an acting job, in particular, can be enticing, says Erica N. Franco, a model and pageant queen (currently Ms. California North America), who sidestepped a scam in 2018 that was virtually identical to the ones that Irigoyen and Cofie have been charged with.
She responded to a notice for a Verizon commercial posted on Backstage by a producer named Keith, of Spring Media LLC. She was cast right away and emailed specific instructions for depositing the check and remitting most of the money to a third party; the funds would be used to pay for her wardrobe. She was told to deposit the money in an ATM, and instructed to not go into the bank under any circumstances. That set off an alarm.
A short time later, Franco was sent a check for “nearly $5,000,” via FedEx. She walked into the bank and told the official that it was highly suspect. The official told her that the bank listed on the check “didn’t even exist,” she recalls.
READ: 12 Tips for Avoiding Casting Scams
Franco, from Riverside, California, said actors and other performers are particularly susceptible to these kinds of schemes, especially with the promise of work and upfront money.
Actors “think that this can be their big break,” so they follow through, she says, “just to see where it goes, and hopefully [producers] deliver on their promise, with no thought that this could be a scam.”
There are two rules of thumb actors, models, and other performers should always know: 1) If anyone casts you without seeing you in person, chances are good the job is fake. Ask a lot of questions of the person doing the casting, and seek out advice from other industry professionals. 2) If anyone gives you money in advance—especially if they tell you to deposit it in your account and then transfer a portion of it to another—it is definitely a scam. Don’t do it. If you do see a suspicious notice, contact Backstage immediately.
“Our customer support team…reviews all of the feedback that actors send us about any scams, problems, and suspicious circumstances they’ve encountered,” says Chris Knowles, manager of customer experience for the website. “When scams related to the acting community are uncovered, this information is then shared with the Backstage casting team…. Working together with the entertainment community, Backstage is able to ensure that any potential scam activity on its site is quickly crushed.”