Season 2 Episode 4 - Fool Me Once
A touch gullible?
Us too.
Things are tough at the moment for a lot of people – in and out of the voiceover industry- and when times get tough the scam artists come out to play.
In this episode we shine a light on some of the common scams going round, and perhaps make you aware of some of the lesser known ones too!
Red flags at the ready, an episode not to be missed for those trying to keep their businesses and personal information safe.
Who’s made it to the Gameshow host league? Let us know!
⬇️ One of us has, the other is still waiting to be called up…
Transcript
hello hello episode four of season two of The off a voiceover podcast episode
four already that’s crazy oh it has gone quick and I’m Jen laon Hunt how you doing Jen back again I’m okay back again
back again I am holding on but I’m excited for this episode how are you doing you’re holding on I’m all right so
brush over that I’m I’m making a conscious decision actually so I came out of the booth last for last week’s
um cuz I kind of had to but actually I’ve decided to stay out of the booth because it’s nice just to come out of
that environment and just sit and talk um as long as Riverside holds up we’ll be okay my audio should be fine it’s
when it went to zoom it went a bit par shap well actually what happened was through Riverside I’m talking through my
Mac I’m just listening through my airpods but when we moved over to zoom it all went through my airpods and mine
uh even though the the pro ones I seem to have got a bit of a defun pair and they don’t sound very clear so apologies
for that for last episode but I’ve decided to stay out the booth cuz it just feels way more relaxed way more chilled um and it is more convenient
based on where I’m currently set up until I get about to front so here we go we’re going for it again so yeah how’s
your week been otherwise okay you want to brush over yeah brush over it yeah okay we’re here it’s Friday it’s fine it
has this week gone quick and we’ve got the voice over social tomorrow which I’m incredibly excited about so the Manchester one yeah can’t go but it
looks good if anyone else is going let us know yeah there a good turnout it’s quite a few people going so looking
forward to that uh right so let’s get into it so this week’s episode I am very
excited about this this week we are looking at voiceover scams the reason yeah the reason why
this came about was simply because about three weeks ago uh when I was with Steph
on a Sunday she got a WhatsApp message off this fella claiming to be this guy
from a big company called trans perfect and you know it came out of the
blue the guy had his name and position at the company there
and for all intents and purposes it seemed you know like it it it raises eyebrows but there’s no
immediate reason to be suspicious it’s something you don’t you deep di so this episode is centered around that journey
and then I myself through knowing that this episode was going to be about did a bit more research into the other scams that are out there and then some things
that may not necessarily be a scam but are definite red flags to look at red flags and I you know what
there seems to be a lot at the moment the last few months it seems to have gone through the roof in terms of scams
yeah and dodgy dealings it’s just yeah seems to be getting worse well what happened was after that happened with
Steph then we had one of our EP sorry one of our Clips go out on Tik Tok and
one of my mates Mandy she messaged me said one of the people that have replied in your video is one of these scammers
I’m going to do can I like copy a screenshot it really yeah so she did so
Mandy’s she goes by a Story redhead on Tik Tok she’s done yeah a video on this
from someone who commented in one of our posts she does a bit of a deep dive into the same sort of thing um so well
checking out she’s got some good content but yeah so she’s great and then on top of that then gravy sent out um a
newsletter saying they’re doing a webinar so I was like it just seems to be all the thing at the moment but obviously because I was there firstand
with Steph it happened I thought yeah it’s seems to be uh something that’s been talked about there’s definitely there’s definitely um a scam going
around at the moment regarding this trans perfect thing so for those that may not have come across it we’ll talk about that what it looks like um how
it’s dressed up we’ve also had a couple of DMS of some people uh which we’re really grateful for who’ve had uh um
contacts as well so we’ll just read out what they’ve received just so you can you know sort of mentally be on the lookout for it as well as protect each
other so here we go so what happened was like I said about three Sundays ago
Steph got a WhatsApp message off this fellow and he was basically saying um I’m from trans perfect this is my my uh
name I’m from I’m the CEO of operations or something to that effect and he said
he had an audiobook project or sorry you had a a 10 thou no sorry 100,000 word
project or thereabouts needed turning around in 4 days and there was $10,000
on the table for it okay so immediately as a voice over it’s you know you’re going to thought okay well obviously
tell me more what do I need to know let me just my first thought would be it’s Sunday this is unusual yeah well exactly
right right so he says here um where’s it gone so he says I’m ukai information
officer trans perfect UK uh and he puts a link and all this sort of stuff so
Steph then says right well before we move anywhere forward I need you to send me um like an
agreement so he does so he says well no problem stand by I’ll send you this agreement through and about 20 minutes
later uh she gets this email from a Gmail account red flag immediately and
already I said to straight went step this is Dodge as it called contact you on a Sunday from a massive company via
WhatsApp went it’s red flag written all over it but she you know she entertained thing is though you do and like you do
entertain it and I think that’s something that’s going to come up a lot in this episode and I I am really with stepless I’m like I’m always just going
to see I’m always just going to go that one step there’s that that little thing in the back of my you if yeah carry on anyway it’s like
it’s like when you come out of a relationship that was really toxic and then go no but I’ve changed there that little of voice goes I’m have they
should have is it your got goes go what you got I know
but you’re always like yeah and that’s what they that’s what they uh go for isn’t it that’s why they do it and obviously if if you’re knew as well they
I mean obviously experienced people may know other things to look out for based on the L some of the way they write these things it’s like chat GPT on crack
I mean it’s like the most unnatural robotic garbage but if you’re
new to it you may fall for the lull of like a big priz money of course you do and like I uh I’ve been around the block
but I still am pretty naive I mean I hope no scammers are listening to this but I am like an absolute like Target
like I want to believe the best in people and and you because you have the Hope don’t you that it’s genuine you’re
like or maybe it’s just I don’t know but obviously yeah go with you gut yeah so she’s got the contract through she got
she got this conc and also I’m just looking at the pictures now because she screenshot so the very first thing that she got was hello how are you I saw your
great voice actor profile and was wondering if you’d be interested in some freelance voiceover projects if so I’d love to chat more with you I’d love to
hear your thoughts here’s the other thing his opening message is in quotation marks and then he put two
question marks three hours later when she ignored it so thanks for reaching out she knew it was a bit dodged and obviously she just sort of anyway so
this agreement comes through right from this Gmail account and all it’s got on it at the bottom where it says like a
signature it’s just got this stamp that says trans perect on it it’s like the most well I think there may be a way for
you to pull off a legitimate trans trans perfect agreement off online and then they’ve just put some Naf stamp on it to
make it look legit it was totally like ridiculous oh God so anyway so he goes oh have you received it find this this
makes me laugh um she said uh he says see he said what’s your payment protocol
he says our projects involves a 100 page document with compensation set at $100 per page we need a 4-day turnaround
what’s your payment Pro protocol bang straight in payment how do you want how do you want it doing we need to know what we’re working with now that isn’t
necessarily a tremendous red flag but if you if you’ve been working in this area for a while you’ll know that people tend
to not ask you how do you want to be paid it’s it’s it’s via bank account if it’s abroad all right that conversation may come up yeah and I think sometimes
it so you’re always like oh maybe there’s a you know because if it is abroad then it is more complicated and
they do want to know don’t they so he’s attached this sample of what the text is that she needs to read as an audition which bearing in mind is like a whole
one page of a book that’s a stray absolutely no um and then he said uh he
asked her a couple of questions like what’s your working method how just just you know just trying he’s just trying to butter her up basically that’s all he’s
do yeah so obviously we do a bit of a loer we go on the trans perfect website and this person has that name in that
position yeah um Steph says I’ve got the agreement he says oh how do you feel about proceeding she says no she says um
she says why have I received an email from a Gmail account from trans perfect he says I’m having a few issues with my
personal company email that’s why I asked the agent to help send to you please don’t feel skeptical
okay so she goes listen not buying it and then she went I think it’s a scam so please delete my information and this
[ __ ] has got the audacity to go if you think all is scam then you will have to pass on this one I don’t usually work
with those that feels skeptical thank you for your time like piss off so
anyway so that was that and then I love the fact they they sent that last email though like really just
to carry on the pretense of it yeah like you know there’s no anyway he do not
repli couldn’t you but there we go yeah and then obviously got time in the hand Steph contacted trans perfect and they
apparently have been contacted a lot been made aware that there’s companies using their information pending to them and like they said look any reputable
company is not going to contact you with you know an obscure hour via WhatsApp you know if you build up I’ve got a
relationship with a lot of people I work with now do WhatsApp until you’re available on this perfectly okay perfectly normal but a large
organization that’s just not the norm so again that’s another red flag and then so then what happened was uh when we did
a little video on Tik Tok um Mandy picked up on in the comment section she said oh somebody’s actually uh one of
the people that have replied to you is a scammer she went so when she went on a deep dive and she effectively had pretty
much the same conversation U I’m just trying to find yeah pretty much exactly the same 100w 100 page document Etc she
got the agree through um she wouldn’t work without a contract and again they were like what’s your payment terms this
and the other now here’s the thing about the scam nobody I know of has gone to the end yet so it’s debatable what the
object well all these scams relate around money that’s that’s given yeah the question is with the Trans perfect
one what’s the what’s the method of doing it because the way most of these scams work if you Google it you’ll see
is is referred to the overpayment scam and we’ll go into that a little bit more about the the the Infamous game show H
scam which I’ve still not had my stripes with yet I’m devastated but I’ve not reached that point in my
career yet but um but with the Trans perfect one because no one’s gone to the end of it yet we don’t know where the
where the spin comes now it could well be because part of the conversations they say that once the Project’s signed
off they get the money sent to them via their client and then it’s approved for them to transfer it to you so it could
well be that they say because this is one of the scams that in order for them to send you the money you need to
transfer them the money so there’s a link between the bank accounts so they can send their fee directly back to you
but even if you share your bank details with them like if you get if they get you to enter it somehow like can they
steal your can they access you know what I mean like some people like clone your bank account and stuff don’t they and do
things yeah I mean I think these days I mean I’m not I don’t I’m not clued up on it enough to say for certain but I feel like these days a sort code and an
account number is not that valuable I don’t think I think it’s more crit C you have that on your invoices and stuff
anyway but like there are certain ways they can do it on there if you enter your details and whether when they got
the CVV number or whatever it is as well like can they use it as well so that’s
the key thing if they’ve your credit card information your your three digit Securities if they’ve got that and your post code you’re in trouble so yeah so
so with this one I think it could very well be that they go through the overpayment scam which is where they send you a check which is more than the
amount can’t like I am gullible as [ __ ] and a lot of time but I can’t imagine
like sending them money I feel like that would be a step too far to me I’d be like you know what no I’m not going to
send you money so we can link this up I you know I but it’s I don’t know well you have to go with your gut and you
have to also acknowledge that sometimes yeah you have to just sort of if it doesn’t seem the normal way of doing
things you just get you get an inner feeling you can’t this is a normal way to operate talk to someone like if this happens and you’re a little bit unsure
and your guts telling it’s probably a bit weird but like just reach out to another vo and or someone else and just
say like does this seem weird to you and they’re going to say yes it does or no I’ve actually had something similar and
it was fine but yeah probably going to be the former yeah and the other thing as well with this as well the the other
aspects of it is the scam could very well be just a way to get an absolute boatload of recordings off people to
machine learn free of charge yeah that’s true they get you to record loads and loads of text uh which would otherwise
cost tens tens of thousands of pounds you’ve just done it for free um and
you’re chasing a ghost for payment so there is that side of it too like like
vast majority of these scams relate to money but there is a lot of uh voice farming I suppose you’d call it where
people try to like P2P we’ll come to that in a bit but P2P is another example so the ultimate Point here is just be
incredibly Vigilant if you get an email or well in this case a WhatsApp message
oh here’s the other thing as well he said I’m based in the UK but he had an American number so just like these things just don’t yeah little little
bits things to look out for and I think that is a is a big one as well so I actually received an email last week
from an agent and it was from an agent assistant who I am aware of and I was like oh
we’ve had some communication before and I was like oh why is they why are they messaging me and there wasn’t really any
context in the email there was just a a document like a PDF to sign for an NDA
you had to sign the NDA before you got the information and I was like I mean that seems a bit dodgy there’s no other
context in this email but because i’ because I’d had a little bit of conversation with her and I was aware of
it I was like I’m going to click on this even though I knew it was so unlikely to
be genuine and it got through and then it was like enter your Gmail Gmail account to go on your whatever and I was
like you know what no because even that’s step too far because then they have access to my Gmail and all sorts
but like a little part of me was like I’m just going to even I know I just
want to see and I know it’s so [ __ ] stupid because if they got access to that I would be screwed I have all
access to all your emails and everything andot you know blackmail and all sorts but little part of me was just curious
about what was next what if I do press this red button yeah um but it God it gets you well from from the uh
information I was uh researching so fishing emails which are they are still
make up over 90% of scams like they are tremendous yeah sorry fortunately with
this one as well I was having a meeting with uh Kimberly Parker later for a chat and she got the same email and clearly
they’d got into their email address cuz I called up the company and said got the voicemail obviously but said just to
make you aware I’ve received this I’m assuming it’s a scam but you know you might want to be aware um yeah so and
then they sent an email to everybody yeah so we there’s there’s some bits we’ll come to in a little while which we’ll just consider like red flags to
look out for but in terms of actual ongoing scams that are doing the rounds at the moment that one so we we’ve
referred that one to the trans perfect one but that is also a well-known scam where people will claim to be from a
certain company yeah because it legitimizes them yeah yeah and and with that there’s another thing that you need
to be careful of which is called um typo spoofing and this is where I’ll put it on my link in today so this is where um
somebody will register a domain name that looks to the so the naked eye looks identical so the example I posted today
were two really great ones cuz it used to be that it would be like Facebook but the two o’s would be like one would be a
zero or something was that obvious but the ones that I posted on LinkedIn today to sort of share with people was um
PayPal and apple now if you listen to this you can try it for yourself you’ll see what I mean if you type in a p e
you’ll look as it looks if you type in a p p capital i e it looks exactly the
same it looks exactly the same same with PayPal p a y p p y pa a capital I oh I
see saying yeah yeah so some of these URLs you have to be super Vigilant
because if it’s a company that’s got a URL or a brand name that’s easy to distinguished because of something like
that you get an email from saying it’s info whatever it may be and oh yeah we can sign you to our agency you got to
pay 300 pound fee massive red flag agencies don’t charge they the the
interesting about this agent one as well is in there uh I’m sorry it looks like our um our books have been hacked
whatever they said emails have been hacked um compromised I’m pring sure they use the phrase but they said like this is going around and stuff so do be
aware and I don’t if it is or not but just to be to be vigilant about that around agencies because I think a lot of us me included are looking for
representation and you know so I think it is they they know it they know people
want these opportunities and they pray on that they they they pray on people who are
I wouldn’t use the word vulnerable as such but I think sometimes when you are really eager and you’re very ambitious and if you’re potentially new you are
quite vulnerable because if someone sells you a dream you are likely just out of pure excitement to maybe explore
it um so yeah I mean I think it gets I don’t think you have to be new I’m just put I’m
holding but just for the rest of it sticks yeah it is yeah but what I’d say is all right you are you are right I
agree but what I would say is that I think with experience you are right you know that
isn’t the norm and you can identify it almost immediately and a big part of that as well is like the communities like the um British voiceovers and
voiceover Network and stuff because people share this [ __ ] as well don’t they and you see it more and more and like obviously if you’ve got a bit of a
community going on individually as well and obviously is now that we do talk about it so like the more you see this
more you’re like oh that person’s had that which brings us back to the game show one right yes yes yes I’ve got my
like this is prolific literally like yeah we’ve um this one and I have received this Mikey so I’m clearly you
in the game would you like to uh you explain your experience of receiving this email I’ve had a couple as well
from uh from uh some listeners which I’ll go through in a sec so go on you take it away yeah so I mean I can’t even
remember what it was maybe a year ago or something and I’ve got we’ve been sent as you say a couple of messages I’ve got
Rebecca’s Rebecca twin open hi beex um thank you for sending them through everybody and mine was pretty much the
same as this but I can’t remember it was a while ago um so I’m going to read out to you now so you know what it says so
dear Rebecca I’m David I obtained your contact information from your website I’m reaching out to inquire about your
services as a voice actor for a commercial Game host show advert project
if you are available and interested I would appreciate it if you get back to me I look forward to hearing from you thank you for your time kind regards
David um it was the the when be last was the commercial Game host show advert
project but the rest of it I mean and I got it and I was like oh this is weird
but interesting um no I don’t normally do this kind of thing but you know like
and yes it’s a bit odd and but if I hadn’t have seen and I hadn’t seen any
going around before that and after I was like no this is definitely a scam then I started seeing it all over like X and
stuff and people were talking about like oh you you’ve not made it until you’ve got the game show you know email is so
prolific like so I got one um ktie Aken Katie’s a listener of the show oh by the
way can I just say as well Katie’s got an excellent I keep I was said podcast I did this one I messag her Katie’s got an
excellent series called voiceover histories oh I’ve not listen to it yet and it sounds like such a cool idea it’s
great like the it’s really interesting especially like industry it’s it’s incred incredibly interesting and I
promise I’d mention it because I’m a big fan of it um so yeah so KT I know you’ve been listening so yeah thanks for sending through your screenshots but
yeah for all as well go check out voice over histories but share in the show notes so yeah yeah um so KY sent through
um a screenshot which actually when you I was reading hers is pretty much word for word the same dear KT I’m Andrew I
obtain your contact information from your website etc etc it goes on yeah so and David you reckon
probably next each other at the desk yeah and then she’s had another one greetings Katy hope you’re doing great I
saw your page here and was impressed was wondering if you’d be available for an audiobook narration project so she
replied hello Stephanie thanks for your message please let me know more details about the project thank you hi contact our project manager via email she’ll
give you all all the details you need thank you red flag she blocked it straight away right thing to do because
if somebody’s contacting you yeah they will just give you the and you got to do the work yeah yeah usually because then
they’ll put you on somebody else and like can we can we carry on Via WhatsApp or telegram I wonder if you got that through Instagram actually because I
have thinking about it I have had similar ones do that that is Instagram yeah that is Instagram yeah and I’ve just been like delete yeah um but it is
it makes you sad CU you’re like oh an opportunity oh [ __ ] off and I think the
other thing as well is some of you might have noticed actually on your follow account have you seen these um you get
like a new follower and this spam like about six oh yeah we’ve got one of the podcast yeah and I’ve SE over the last
few months I’ve had probably about four or five across the podcast on a personal one and then when you click on the profile they’re relatively new accounts
and they always say the same thing like looking for voiceover artists for new project WhatsApp or say it’s like so you
just need to look out for this I think again as I at a time where some people feeling a little bit vulnerable about
yeah a lot of people work dropping and opportunities and competition higher then we’ve got external external
problems as well I think it’s it’s frustrating and concerning because these
people will prey on some of those vulnerabilities and lead people down path of poal opportunity but all you got
to do is just sort of identify the markers that this isn’t how it’s ever normally being done and the language
that they use the the methods that they want to communicate they’re all just red flags and even though it might like I
said before if it seems too good to be true it more than likely is just exercise Extreme Caution because yeah
they’re out there they’re out there and I think I really struggle with the idea that they are out there so last year um
I my Instagram page was cloned and this wasn’t something I was aware of before
and basically they took my Instagram page and at the time I think had I don’t know 3,000 followers or whatever so not
like a big number like people and they just cloned everything so all the pictures my profile picture and I think
the only difference was that they put something like jen. laon hunt or something like that as you say it was
something really tiny that they put in or they added a warant or something really basic um and then they started
contacting all my followers and and saying that I was the
impostor and it was at the time it was actually really horrible because it’s
horrible anyway and there was other [ __ ] going on and felt bit quite well quite vulnerable like you were saying and it was such it felt like such an invasion
of invasion of privacy because they were contacting people saying that I was the Imposter and could they send up this
email and then presumably if they send an email they get asked to input their details in or something like that and
that’s how they get hacked yeah so for me personally I wasn’t like wasn’t going
to lose money or whatever but so I had clients and contact and Friends contact me and being like what’s going on and
contacted me offsite obviously because I worried about if I was actually genuine or not and it was really upsetting and
it went on for months and months and months until they got bored and they people weren’t buying it so fortunately
no one fell for their [ __ ] but they could have easily done and in terms of like reputational damage that could have
been massive for me I’m having to post on LinkedIn and to X and stuff and say this isn’t me this is my only this is my
only post please report this one but like it’s a [ __ ] and I think like so
but it’s really random as well like CL it’s just a really random idea and then the idea that somebody and it’s I don’t
I don’t if it’s a bot or if it’s an actual person but that there’s somewhere in the world doing this
[ __ ] and you’re like what the [ __ ] well I think one thing I would always say is because I’ve seen a lot of those cloning
things and for me one I’ve seen more now one of the common things that is the immediate red flag is if this person
that you follow and you know and you see their content if out of nowhere suddenly promoting that you can make loads of money by joining a Bitcoin or they
didn’t do anything like that I see that a lot and that’s like you know follow this link I made you know if you need
more out follow think that’s if they’ve been hacked I think that’s a bit different actually I think it’s like if they’ve been hacked then they can start
posting on the actual page yeah uh but yeah that is a massive red flag don’t trust that um and if you’ve got a way to
contact them so this um poor car Terry poor car Terry amazing car Terry who
been on the podcast before was unfortunate to be hacked and I think it’s probably through she was trying to
help out someone else and she got hacked and they took her Instagram page and she spent a long time in a lot of effort
building that up and and yeah horrendous for it and but literally [ __ ] all you
can do because mattera is a bit [ __ ] and doesn’t really care um so you got to be
You’ got to be so careful and because we promote our businesses on these things you do have to be really wary and she’s
amazing and she’s building hers up again now um but it is you have to be so careful I um yeah just a quick because
well we didn’t finish the story on the game show things so we’ll come back to that but just oh sorry I got carried away with my
uh no just quick this wasn’t a scam but just reminded me when you talk about Instagram and like not being very
helpful I remember about two years ago um I had problems with Instagram I can’t remember how it started but essentially
um whenever I tried to post something they immediately took it down they said this is unlawful content or this
account’s been compromised I was I’ve been hacked I was like I was writing every like week no reply blah blah blah
four months I was locked out my account I was like fuming like who’s doing this who’s the Jo it was it’s because I had a
link to my website that was no longer working that was it oh
my so hang in a minute so just went just deleted it and saved it it worked I was
like you [Laughter] dick oh my god oh no I don’t think
you’ve ever told me that before cuz you’re promoting a website that doesn’t work so absolute planker it’s a red flag
in in their eyes so yeah that well yeah I mean it’s good that it was in a way you know they need to be vigilant oh
dear thing to look out for yeah so yeah so going back to to the game show the
the Infamous game show one so for those of you you don’t know how this works as we’ve read out it starts off that you
get contacted by you could be um work on a project for a game show and if you
explore some more of the content you generally see a few things that come up the fee is always about the same thing
$850 I don’t know why they don’t change these things to try and be a bit trying to up it with inflation used the same
content for 10 years that everyone everyone’s like cheap [ __ ] bastards not don’t know why it’s not working
anymore so anyway um so so and they always use the same words like kindly
and all this like terminology and then with the game show one the way it turns to work is they say this job you can
work remotely where you are CU what we’ll do is we’ll book out a studio that’s local to you uh and we we’ll pay
the engineer and this is where the scam kicks in so what they do is oh I didn’t get that far okay so then what they’ll
do is uh they will claim to you that they have a studio arranged near you they’re going to send you Teck you have
to pay for first before the booking can complete once the booking is complete they’ll put you in touch with them so they say we’ll send you a check the
check comes out and then as the check is on its way to you they an actual physical check send you a check and then
they say the check that we’ve sent sent you is uh we agreed a fee of I don’t know 850 let’s stick with but they send
you uh 1,500 so they say uh it was a HR error when the check clears can you just
send us the difference back and keep the 850 now back in the day when this was a new thing people were falling for it
because then the check would clear ini by the way can I just say for the people that um are maybe below 25 who don’t
know what a check is oh my God this is like I’m getting older D back in my day like s thing a check was probably the
most disappointing form of payment you could receive but like it just when did this I who has a checkbook now sorry I’m
Inc yeah yeah yeah so I’m saying younger people might even know what a check is but they do still exist a check was just
simply where somebody would write you a check it was you know the bank provide you this slip and you write out the who it’s going to and the amount and you
give it to your bank and then in about seven days time that money would then appear in your account however there was
a problem with it where the check would clear say it seven days the check would
clear on day seven and it would be available funds but then the bank would only know the next day if the check
would bounce which means the money the account was coming from didn’t have the money to give you so then the window of
time where that money is accessible sneaky I mean thing if they P this the
the brain power intelligence needed for these kind of things to actual good that’d be amazing and like or an actual
job like what the [ __ ] they’re not stupid a lot these this is when I was reading about this because it’s been
around for a while that was the first thing that came to my mind was like can I just this in genuinely like have did check still exist I think they still
exist I think a lot of businesses may still use them but in in a personal space I mean I assume so I don’t know I
don’t think so well that’s what I said before someone said to you it’s like you know today you’re getting paid and they hand you a check it’s like oh thanks
mate I can’t wait to wait another week to get my money yeah but I’d be like where is there even a bank to pay it in
no you still have Banks you still have Banks I know you still have Banks but like [ __ ] miles away from me um Does people still use checks so that was my
first thing I was like well in this day and age people don’t even use checks really anyway but that’s how the scam would work they would send you a check
um the check would then go through the and and what would happen is while that check is in clearing they would be on
you like a hwk has it cleared yet has it cleared yet has it cleared yet because they know they’ve got a small of time
before that money is it bounces the problem is for those people that unfortunately got caught up in it the
day that did clear they would with withdraw the excess them back and then
the next day the whole amount would have gone and they would have been in whatever the defic they’re down 850 they’ll be down 850 if that well no
whatever they gave them if they took out 300 of it the next day they’d be300 pound in the minus or whatever it is
yeah so and there goes the scam shall I tell you the the stat about checks go for it I’m not sure about the source so
don’t hit me up on this one but our research revealed that 44% of current account holders and 78% of of businesses
write at least one check per year per year yeah at least one per year but
you’re right people are still using them but clearly not I mean they they are virtually extinct if I have like who’s
got a checkbook I don’t know anyway I have not seen a checkbook for 15 years I don’t know anyone who were I mean like I said before if if you someone offered
you payment and they gave you a check I would be pissed I like if that I would be like no do a transfer be there
seconds where how are you paying I just give me in cash for this point um
so that’s the game show Infamous scam the overpayment scam there’s another one cheeky [ __ ] there’s another one
uh which is uh it’s kind of referred to like the online interview uh sort of scam now this one is where it kind of
fall Falls in line a little bit to what we said before about um a quote unquote agent contacting you for promise of work
so what this one works is that they you’re you’re contacted by a company who say that they would like to work with
you on a long-term basis so you still be you know you’re a voiceover for them long longer term work etc etc you
actually have an online interview with someone like there’s a full process okay now again there’s no information as to
where this goes to the very end so it’s it’s a little bit up in there as to how it looks but essentially you’re going to be dealing with a few things number one
working for nothing as in they’ll give you some scripts you’ll never see payment it’s just a way to get free work
out of someone maybe they have got clients they just have no desire to pay the voice over for the work so they
pretend of opportunities and you’re working for free that’s number one again number two is with all this lovely uh
prospects of work they we’re putting on the table you then have to pay a sign up fee of some sort yeah again just it’s
just not the norm and obviously the last and final one is you do a project they send you payment for it and then you
know there’s about but again as I say I I I’m I can’t see how the check thing would work in the modern day because no
I mean you know that one a year that people send yeah and the one you get is a scam it’s like
yeah oh no death to the check um God it’s just it’s insane it really just
blow my mind really that it’s such a it’s such big business yeah I was going to say because I think there may well be
that they can do it like a I don’t know like a PayPal scams are quite common so you can get monies I remember years ago
I was selling um a PlayStation 4 and I decid I sold it via eBay and oh my God I
think I had about five or six people tried to purchase it and then eBay said this this uh PayPal account the money’s
coming from has been hacked so do not post anything um I couldn’t believe it
like that was rampant then so essentially someone someone uh you know um purports themselves to be a buyer but
the funds they’re using is from a PayPal account of someone they’ve hacked they’re paying by that and then they say to you can I collect it in person they
won’t there’s no deliveries oh well local I’ll just come and fetch it and then what happens is you give the item and then even though you’ve not done
anything wrong you’re you know completely unknown to the scam yeah eBay
will take the money back out of your account so not only you’re down the money that they’ve transferred you you’re also down the products but that’s a whole different story so what I’m
saying is it could well be for the voiceover maybe they could do it via Paypal way where they send you the money
uh maybe they say can you send us back it’s an overpayment so that is a legitimate thing and then it’s all I
don’t know I’m speculating it’s but it’s something yeah it’s difficult when you don’t you’re not in the mindset or anything of a well a criminal
essentially that’s what they are um that it’s difficult to imagine I just can’t imagine people being this mean well
they’re out there and I think it’s with you know I think unfortunately where you know I don’t know there there’s there’s
there’s never ever ever any justification for it but I think you know around the world where some people are finding it harder and harder to make
a living um I think you know when things are even more expensive I think you just
need to be mindful that that’s a time where crime is going to be Rife you know what I mean so yeah are everywh I guess
yeah so they’re they’re the two key ones they sort of center around the same sort of thing but they’re the things to look
out for like the scams that are going about so as I said the main one that’s the name that’s dropping the most is transfer perfect I do know that trans
perfects have had a tremendous amount of uh contact from people telling this so no doubt the name trans perfect will be
switched to something else or maybe there’ll be a few of going about but the format will be the same it’ll be exactly and the same way if you get a follower
on Instagram who’s spam liking all your content and then they say oh yeah DM me we can uh do some work for you again
just just look at the profile look at the background if it looks a bit sus it probably is you just use a bit of due
diligence so I think it’s time it’s time for this
week’s voice over of the week feel like we’re having too much fun
with that yeah yeah I love it right okay I have to say first and foremost um this
was tremendously difficult tremendously difficult for a number of reasons well
number one you know as September’s kicked in and people are starting to see more work my feed like people who follow
us Etc um they’re posting more jobs it’s brilliant it’s so good to see I
completely agree like some really good stuff out there now well done everyone yeah when we first started this idea um
it was in the in the midst of a pretty much a big summer summer slump was it so I was like that’s why we didn’t do it the first epode I was like can’t find
anything it’s just memes literally no one would yeah we were spending like yeah memes being like oh God yeah so
then but then obviously as we carried on we started off with uh Drew then we had gabs last week uh so who’s it this week
this week uh my voiceover the performance voiceover of the week is
Katherine Vin Clair well done Katherine Katherine has done this promo this this
football promo hang on a second on us I love a sports promo I love a good sports
promo yeah um she’s done it for the UA for women’s Euro 2025 tournament now
there’s a few reasons why I love this because not just because I myself love doing sports promos yeah um but it just
captured that absolute essence of what it was about and it just resonated and
there’s a great intro there’s like a segment where you’ve got all that cinematic music in the middle and there’s a great outro so I’m going to
play the intro now so you get a feel for it but Katherine I absolutely loved it I thought you did a stellar job and for
you this week for me that was the performance the voiceover of the week Switzerland in the heart of Europe the
home of mountains Heights Peaks and Summits Summits of
[Applause] emotions okay so there we go well done Catherine and as I said
before that was tremendously difficult to pick because there was so
when I looked through our feed of followers what was posted I was like JZ L this and this is one of yeah this is
one of the only downsides of deciding to do something like this is like you have to take responsibility that there maybe
some people who listen to thought I thought that was you know I’m surprised you didn’t consider this listen Jesus Christ we’re not people of Mikey stop
overthinking it I know everyone understands we want to just praise one but the story some brilliant work out
there I just don’t I just I hate the idea of someone feeling disappointed that we’ve overlooked something there can only be one I don’t think people care that much our approval maybe they
do maybe they do it’s certainly not approval it’s just a little bit of recognition but you know anyway so yeah
I do know what you mean well done Catherine right so for the final part then I think what we’ll do is rather than focus on all these individual scams
is just look at things that we would say are not necessarily a scam per se but definite red flags yeah so the first one
I’ve written down and I kind of mentioned it before is if you get an audition where they’re specifying you
have to read the whole script and it’s a bit of a beefy script as well I think
I’ve fallen fell of this have you I think a couple of years ago I did this so it was a company in LA or somewhere
and asked me to do this and I was like oh I looked into it they seem really legitimate and I was like yeah okay and
it was to to be on the books like to be on their thingy and I was like yeah okay I’m going to go for this and then I
contacted them afterwards and they were like oh yeah no we do want you to be on our books but these the rates and they
were [ __ ] and I obviously I should have found out stuff beforehand you you but like I am pretty certain that is
somewhere in the world has been used because it was I don’t know I’m very dubious about that and I I wouldn’t let
that happen again but yeah as you say I was I was quite green and yeah you want to I was eager eager being yeah and I
think that I think it’s worth saying as well that is largely towards people you’ve not worked with before like if you’ve got experience there are people
I’ve worked with and say look listen I know it’s not the nor toally thing doing so again it’s just it’s just you know
Case by case but um and I’m following on from that which is kind of related is Peter P’s I
saw I think I actually mentioned this in last season um there was quite a big increase in auditions that just looked a
bit sus like if you look at I’m thinking about voice 123 specifically in this case like that’s the only one I really
use um you can see you don’t know who they are by name but they like have like
the client identity number how many jobs they’ve posted how many they booked and when it’s one that says it’s their first
job they’ve ever posted and it’s asking a lot of you they may be legit I mean people do have to start somewhere
someone does have to one two three for the first time eventually I get that but again it’s just it’s from experience of
what you used to so what made you think that was a fake then so first of all um the audition script they sent through
was kind of gibberish it looked like machine learning language it made no sense I see yeah okay so it made no
sense it was like it was it didn’t follow a pattern it didn’t really tell a story it was it was trying to but in you
think it was for train tring maches yeah cuz that’s the way it works with machine learning is they need all these uh words
nuances and inflections yeah so it’s it’s less about context about content yeah um so that
was the red flag and then on top of that they want you to just read a bulk of it there’s like a very large fee attached to it which again you just yeah for
machine learning a large fee is usually attached well into five figers um but
again I just felt you know as I say this isn’t saying it’s a scam but it’s certainly a red flag um that I
and I think if you’re doing something like that if you’re signing up to one of these TTS is it is that
things yeah then you need to do it knowingly you need to be signing contracts you need to be getting a huge
figure like there needs to be a lot of consideration absolutely it’s you don’t want to do that by mistake or going into
it a bit naive no um you sent me something last night about the um a
voice CL it yeah and I have give me a second
yeah you have to add lip so yeah something yeah so basically
this is kind of back to the old subject flipping AI again but it’s relevant so um obviously AI voice cloning in one
capacity for our industry is like you know well we’ve been down that road you know where I’m going to go with it but actually there’s a really scary side to
it where they can clone people’s voices to make you think there’s somebody that you potentially may know in order to try
and scam you out of something so again it’s and then Jen sent me an example last night oh it was um thingy wasn’t it
I can’t find it so I’m sorry so basically celebrity somebody got a DM I mean I think celebri is a bit pushing it
to try and get away with it but using as as example somebody got a DM saying oh I’m such and
such somebody got a DM saying I’m such and such uh blah blah blah and then obviously the person responding saying I
don’t believe it and then they sent a voice note they sent a voice note with that actor’s uh voice but AI
now obviously as AI starts to get you know improve a little bit here and there over time it’s something again to be Vig
Vigilant of the one I heard about on the news um a couple was about a year or two ago this was one that scared the [ __ ]
out of me I don’t know how they did it so obviously there’s a little bit of planning and prep that goes into it but what happened was they AI
cloned uh the daughter of this oh [ __ ] yeah and what they did was they called
the mother and then basically had this AI voice in like a distress to I’m in a
bit of trouble just I can’t talk right now but can you just send me some money to this account please cuz I can’t get into my bank account obviously the mom panicking sends this us oh did she
actually to send it cuz the one I saw like the kid was in the room with them or something although upstairs but it
might have been different and it’s like [ __ ] awful like so they’re saying like make sure you’ve got a safe word with your family yeah I do
know there are definitely ones where people thankfully have you know been able to because I’ve had it before I’ve had like um hi Mom it’s me can you send
me like two life oh yeah I think Stephan cornard has shared a few of those he’s like playing along with them though and
he’s creates his imagination words honestly if you don’t follow Stefan on Facebook too because it’s hilarious just
for this but for but from the AI point of view yeah like that is that is definitely a thing that some of them that’s [ __ ] terrifying yeah I think
you sorry no I’m just in shock really that they do that they can do that I
think you can still tell the only problem is if they get if they get somebody in a distressed State then if
yeah pic you might not P but it’s that’s not obviously voiceover related that that directly but the idea of the technology
being able to do that yeah you know again it’s just very exercise for people to be aware of like just as people
absolutely outside of the voice over world yeah um so the other ones we talked about was an agent coming to you
saying that they will be able to get you loads of work promise of work but you need to pay a fee of some kind yeah I
mean I don’t I listen I would say that’s 60% scam 40% red flag maybe there are
some agen out there there are a cup all a very very small amount that be like okay you need to pay to go on to this
book I I’m not a book like this software or something I can’t think who it is but there’s at least one that you’ve got to
sign up for a thing but yeah it’s very very rare and it’s definitely a red flag to check out yeah because there are lots
and lots of um agencies uh like voice overs. co. co.uk Great British voices um
even voices.com they you have to pay a fee to join the roster like that is that is the norm I’m referring more
that’s more pay to play though isn’t it yeah but there are there are rosters or agencies as such that you can pay to
join that that is nor right you’re saying I’m referring more to you getting contacted directly from Joe blogs and he
says offers all this promise and potential yeah for a feet you know what I mean and then when you do a bit of a
deep dive it looks a bit sus and I got yeah so again because if someone’s going to do that they know you’re going to do the background checks so therefore you
need to then look out for the dodgy links that don’t seem right or you know is that person who they say they are or
are they pretending to be somebody else in order to try and look credible so that’s another one um what
was the other one uh asking for so asking for a fee to submit your work I’m
not com across that one why was that one written down asking for a fee to submit an audition to confirm your oh the bank
details so yeah sometimes again this is just worth mentioning I’ve not come across anyone who’s had this but there
could be one where somebody says that you’ve done an audition uh they like it in order to pay you they want to do it
via um pay you via instant payment to your debit card so they need all your debit card details and then that’s it
once you give that away yeah no you’ve had it you absolutely had it yeah yeah so that’s pretty much it the list I mean
this is a big file wide topic and I was absolutely fascinated when I start researching for this and we’ve only read
there are more but I feel like you can cover all the different TS but they all seem to Center on the same objective
that’s just yeah yeah so essentially my takeaway would be just be absolutely Vigilant foran that
are offering you these ginormous upfront payments in SS of ways the way you contacted you know and and just really
do follow your gut you know what I mean follow your because that really annoying phrase they say like it seems too good to be true than it probably is and it’s
so annoying but it’s so true yeah and I think obviously you have a little bit of a leg up if you’re more experienced
because as I’ve said a few times you you kind of can straight away identify the things that that isn’t how we normally
do it unusual but if you new to it all yeah you’ve got to be extra vigilant
especially right now because it feels like there are a lot of things floating around that they can try and get you it really does so just take it on board but
the game show host scam amazingly is still going around so yeah I wonder how
much for and I wonder if they’re still paying in checks yeah I so yeah so just be Vision but that’s
it I’ve yeah that is that is the episode on potential voiceover scams we
sincerely hope you enjoyed it it was be safe out there yeah don’t get ripped off I feel like I’ve learned a lot actually
from this I listen I got to be honest I I thoroughly loved researching this and I was looking forward to recording it so
I hope people find it fun and uh interesting and informative and if there’s just one bit of it you can take
away from that you maybe didn’t know then it’s done its job yeah it has and if there’s any other ones that we’ve just not covered in the episode please
let us know like I’m definitely would like to kind of keep learning and keep sharing as well so yeah hit us up 100%
so uh so that’s that so thanks very much for uh sticking with us folks hope you enjoyed it and we will uh I guess we’ll
catch you next week see you next week take care folks bye byebye
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