Private Lead Scam???

Victor Harris · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007, 16:13 (GMT) Post subject: Private Lead Sc am???

Has anybody got a Private Lead from some cat named Tim Crawford of Crawford Broadcasts?

I got this last night:

Hello Victor. You have a great voice. I was hoping you can give me a custom demo for a potential up coming project of mine. I have a generic line that I would love if you could give me a custom demo of.

Thanks very much. Tim

" From NBC News, this is Today...with Matt Lauer, Meridith Vieira, and Tim Crawford. Live from studio 1a in Rockafeller Plaza."

So, I did the demo and sent it in. After thinkng about it, I looked up the Today Show (I never watch it) and they don't have anyone named Tim Crawford on that show. So, then I ran a check on Tim Crawford and Crawford Broadcasts...to my suprise, it is a 19 year old kid who is producing fake newscasts on Youtube.com!!!!!!!!!!!! I have tried to contact him to no avail this morning. I hope he doesn't rip me off.

Voice123 guys need to look into this please. Does this kid have a history of using Voice123?...and more important, does he pay? For some reason my B.S. alarm is going off and I am raising the flag. Mad

Victor Harris · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007, 16:23 (GMT) Post subject:

Of course not. Who the heck watermarks a private lead?....I will from now on if I get hosed on this. Embarassed

Victor Harris · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007, 16:30 (GMT) Post subject:

Man, I 'll tell u, I have never had a problem before. I always watermark public leads, but not private. So, I learned something today...lol. Hey, if the kid wants to use it and pays me, I don't care what he does with it.

Freddie Molina · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007, 16:35 (GMT) Post subject:

Hello Victor,

We really appreciate you bringing this up to our attention, I´ll send this to the QA department so they can check on it.

ww barb

Victor Harris · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007, 16:36 (GMT) Post subject:

Thanx Freddie Wink

Colin Campbell · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007, 19:04 (GMT) Post subject:

I immediately knew that something was wrong... the name Tim Crawford sticks out like a sore thumb in that intro, but then again I've heard the real intro. Also, if he's 19, I doubt he is serious about paying.

Victor Harris · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007, 19:10 (GMT) Post subject:

Colin...did you get one too from him?

Colin Campbell · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007, 19:18 (GMT) Post subject:

No Victor, I didn't. But I never get Private Leads. I was told it was my keywords so I just yesterday revamped them. Now I'm waiting for the privates to come pouring in! HARDY HAR HAR.

Noel Gibilaro · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007, 19:48 (GMT) Post subject:

Yes, I had something similar happen. Some time ago, I got a Private Lead from Jim Hess at a company called Pathetic Medic and they wanted me to hurriedly perform a newly 'revised' script for a radio spot and similar to the sound of the voice on another recording he supplied. It was of the Talent that does the PM ad now.
(http://www.patheticmedic.com/resources/radioad.mp3).

I naively re-recorded what they asked for and emailed it back without watermarks only to find out a number of days later that his advertising dept chose someone else.

Wether or not it was true, I suspected that they stole my recording. Maybe it was to use as a wedge to get their voice talent's price down. I have to think that if he didn't like my voice, he wouldn't have wasted time to contact me in the first place and waste time.

Some time late last year, I had a 'rush' private lead email with a 10-15 sec script. I emailed him that I would perform it once I saw a deposit in my paypal. He dissappeared just as fast.

Now, it's all about watermarks, sound-alike words and altered script.

Victor Harris · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007, 20:28 (GMT) Post subject:

Sound advise for sure Noel. Its sad that there is really no screening process on here for talent seekers.

Anthony Williams · Posted: Fri Feb 09, 2007, 21:00 (GMT) Post subject: Wow!

Sorry to see that happen to you Victor! Man I learn so much on this forum all the time!

Tony

Julie West · Posted: Sat Feb 10, 2007, 00:27 (GMT) Post subject:

I had a similar thing happen to me. Only the potential client asked for one line to be read for a custom demo...."Thank you for calling.....office"

A few weeks later, he said "I like how you sound, would you mind recording these other 2 lines for me as well for a demo". That's when I replied with "I would be happy to....for pay" or something along those lines. That guy was trying to get me to read lines and send them to him one at a time...while calling them "demo's". Since then I've watermarked by cutting out a few key words here and there.

J.S. Gilbert

I've mentioned this before, several times in other posts. "False" auditions are an inherent issue no matter where or how you audition. It is quite true that an ad agency wanting to pitch a company for their business should pay talent (the unions have a special category for this type of work). Many agencies will pay. Many agencies think it's okay to send it out to cast with the "assumption" that they'll sell it and there will be an opportunity for an actor or actors to have a paid perfomance. Also, for those of you audtiioning through agents, do you realize that when something is sent to cast, it can got to 3, 4, 5, or 40 talent agents to audition actors. If it's a spot with two actors on it, and it gets sent to cast to 6 talent agents, each agent only has a 1 in 3 chance of booking an actor on the job. Additionally, the talent agent working on a scant 10% commission doesn't have the measn to verify that every single audtion is valid. There is a realistic amount of due diligence that V123 or any talent agent can undertake or they would go broke and also risk relationships with quality talent seekers. Odd how many "actors" on here have what amounts to 10 minutes worth of effort invested in their voiceover careers, yet have such great demands and expectations of V123 and the people who go to great efforts to use this service and hrie from here. Personally, I think watermarks are insulting to the vast majority of proffesionals who hire talent. None of my talent agents use watermarks for auditions, so it seems abnormal to use them here. Maybe I'll get ripped off and maybe I won't. Let's just say that I concentrate on getting the work and I'll leave it to the universe to sort itself out. Thaqt's not to sya that a little common sense doesn't help in any strange situation. What's far more detrimental is when I hear an actor on here say that they like to respond to auditions that they know their agent wouldn't submit them for. I believe (as a community) we've already determined that too many inappropriate people respond to each audition. This kind of behavior will only drive away professional talent seekers and atract those who wish to take advantage of a system wrought with desperate individuals. Based on having worked with ad agencies and produced quite a bit of varied work, I can come up with a number of reasons why you didn't get the job, even when it looked like it should have been a lock. Our egos, constantly bruised by the slection system of talent, make us want to think that we've been taken advantage of. One of the most reputable and largest manufacturers of toys cancelled a session with me the morning of my booking. The reason was that after review, some executives thought my character was inappropirate for the project. My first reaction was extreme disappointment. My second reaction was "they're absolutely right!." This however didn't cover the concept of me receiving compensation, since the booking was cancelled so close to the session time.

I think it might be a good idea for V123 to have their legal departments create a very short disclaimer in very large type that clients would need to checkmark before hearing auditions that might state "Use of this or any recording obtained from V123 for any purpose other than the selection of talent for a paid position is a violation of existing laws."

I'm not a lawyer, but I'm sure there is a way of working that which would be legal.

I should also mention that just because many, many people shoplift at Macy's, they don't trat the bulk of their customers with contempt.

Freddie Molina · Posted: Mon Feb 12, 2007, 16:17 (GMT) Post subject:

Alex Torrenegra · Posted: Tue Feb 13, 2007, 16:28 (GMT) Post subject:

Great idea! Thank you! We will make sure to adapt it, at least partially, into the new version of Voice123. Thank you!