This Article Can Save Your Bank Account

And I thought this scam had gone the way of the dodo.

In this week’s newsletter, I’ll let you in on an old scam aimed at entertainers. I’ll cover the warning signs and ways to keep yourself safe.

Since it’s the beginning of the school year here in the Northeast of the United States, I anticipated plenty of new show inquiries.

But for your amusement, I’m going to reproduce my conversation with an email “prospect” in full, along with my responses and commentary. Then we will debrief.

Oh, and any grammatical errors are the “prospect’s.”

Hello this  Mrs Bailey i will like to know if you are available for magic show  my daughters and do you accept credit for payment ?

I replied saying that I did but would need to know more details for the show, including her location. As I get gig requests all across the country, I turn down more gigs than I accept.

Hi there, Actually Am hearing impaired I want to make an appointment for a birthday party for my family.I want you to get back to me with the total estimate cost for 4(Females) ,And also want you to know that my daughters will be coming with their private limo driver and i will appreciate if you can secure the appointment for my family Olivia Bailey   21, Emilia Bailey  19 and Sophia Bailey 24 Adelina Bailey 23

They are going to start 9th or 10th of September .. 10 am for the ladies ..is the date and time okay for you

As soon as I read “limo driver,” I knew where this was headed but decided to play along, mostly for you, dear newsletter reader. I simply responded to “Mrs. Bailey” by asking her for the second time where she was located.

After sending me her local address, I saw it was roughly 30 minutes away. She must have found where I am and Googled a suitably close location for the scam. Playing along, I told her about $600, which is a ridiculous amount of money to entertain four people in the economically-depressed town she said she lived in.

Good am okay with the price and am ready to book down the date...Nice talking with you...Also i will need a little favor from you...

“Yup, here we go,” I thought. Here comes the pitch…

Im yet to make payment and bookings with the private limo driver that would be bringing the ladies to your location all because they were unable to set up their credit card system also they dont have credit card facilities to bill on me now

I asked what she needed, knowing full well what was coming.

Thanks,i want you to please help me add the Private Limo service fee that will be bringing my daughters  to your location for there training and i will send you my card information to charge for  both your fee and Limo service fee together Once the money hint your Account you will help me send it to the Limo Driver's Account So he Can get me booked  for that date and i will be Giving you $100 tips for helping me handling everything in good faith and understanding?

And there it is.

This scam artist wanted me to charge her credit for my magic show plus the cost of this supposed limo driver. Her card would then refuse charges and I’d get nailed with a refund. But the true secret to this little scam is the fictitious limo driver.

If I had agreed to this weird arrangement, I would have received her credit card number. I’d be instructed to charge the card and then she would pressure me to immediately send the limo driver money to her bank account via some weird method that would not protect me.

After her card refused my charge, I’d be left several hundred dollars in the hole for her “limo driver.”

These kinds of scams prey on entertainers desperate for a big payday.

I told this twit my fee was $600. I could have easily added a zero to it. She would have jumped all over it. If I was a newbie, I might think I just scored a big payday.

I’ve seen this scam maybe a dozen times over the years.

For some reason, most of my scam requests came through GigSalad or GigMasters (now known as The Bash).

This was the first one I had seen in a while that contacted me directly. Turns out superior SEO has its drawbacks.

Some of these scam artists are even more brazen. About 12 years ago, I was booked to do a couple of school shows in the Cayman Islands. I spoke to the client multiple times on the phone. When her check arrived, I ran straight to my bank. The good folks at my bank confirmed what I suspected – it was a fake check.

I immediately called the client and called the whole thing off. She began freaking out, screaming she was now out all of her money, etc.

The lengths people go to take advantage of other people astounds me.

Here are the warning signs you may be the victim of a scam:

1.   Look for poorly written communication. If the person calls you “dear” or uses overly flowery language, watch out.

In my experience, these scammers are non-English speaking people. It’s the easiest way to spot a phony. I know I have subscribers in other countries, but my guess is these rip-off artists will be just as inept in your native tongue.

I’d love to find out if my guess is correct. So, if you’re reading this and live somewhere other than the U.S. or Canada, please let me know.

2.   Watch out for an eagerness to pay in full, regardless of the amount.

Look, I’d love the ‘big score’ as much as the next person. My biggest fee to date is $3500 for a single show. I’m not trying to sound like a big shot. I’ve only got that fee a handful of times. Because I chose to focus on school assemblies, I will forever be resigned to smaller fees.

In short, if someone agrees to an exorbitant fee quickly, be careful. Please be aware that what may be an obscene fee to you might be a regular fee for another entertainer.

If you think you’ve been hooked by a scam artist, just add a couple of zeros to your fee. In my area, $350 is a fairly standard birthday party or library fee. If I tried to quote $3500 for a single library show, I’d be laughed out of the state.

3.   The biggest warning sign is the “other vendor” gambit.

The conman will almost always ask you to bill them an extra amount of money to cover the caterer, limo driver, taxi driver, whatever. As you can see from what I wrote above, this is simply so they can try to get you to finance their scam.

Don’t ever agree to bill the client for anything above what your fee is. That’s the whole game. Once you say “no” to that, their entire house of cards collapses.

4.   The scam artist includes a lot of religious language.

Hopefully, what I say next will not offend you. But in 20+ years of professional magic, I have never had a legitimate client ever throw a lot of “in God we trust,” “have mercy on your soul,” or any of that kind of language.

I’ve been booked for plenty of church events, too. Other than quickly mentioning the nature of the event and the location, even pastors don’t lay the religious language on as thick as these con artists.

When in doubt, proceed with extreme caution. If you realize you’re dealing with a con artist, cut ties immediately.

If a potential payday sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Thus ends this week’s public service announcement.

Until next week, stay safe, everyone!

--Cris

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Need help in multiple areas? I can help you with your website, direct mail, email, or other marketing strategies. I also offer consulting services for crafting magic routines or even entire shows. Want to find out more? Shoot me an email at cris@theprofessionalmagicianclubpro.com.

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