Anything Goes : Catfishing in the Stage 32 Network? by Elaine Chang

Good question. I've had that happen to me, too. Beware of people claiming they are producers, for sure. And someone on here is pretending to be Pierce Brosnan now.

By all means, Elaine Chang & Dustin Richardson! Please report suspicious entities or messages to support@stage32.com. They'll check it out immediately.

Dustin Richardson Pierce Brosnan? LOL!!

Yeah, it's been happening in the past couple of years. They seem to look sort of look/feel the same no matter what the name. I ignore/block any message that reminds me of the others.

Thanks, Dustin, Robin, and Jackie! I'll for sure report suspicious contacts from now on... and, Dustin? "Pierce Brosnan" reached out to me, too! Luckily, "he" didn't claim the real PB's credentials, so it was pretty obvious. But one phisher took on what could convince people is the real person's CV, posing as a producer from Spain who promised to make "something iconic" out of my work. I think I fended this individual off when I wrote back, said I'd looked at his IMDbPro info and would be glad to have a video conference to find out what projects interested him the most.

Robin Gregory is right, Elaine Chang. Also send a screenshot of the message(s) when you email support@stage32.com. If you can't send a screenshot, copy and paste the person's message when you email support@stage32.com.

And the link to their Stage 32 profile.

Someone claiming to be Germaine Clement tried to add me, and I reported it mainly because his profile said that he’s middle eastern.

They’re really good at taking action upon things like this. I think.

Great advice, everyone. Rob Jones: good idea to block or delete--and definitely to report!

Yeah, Elaine Chang. A few months ago, I had someone pretending to be a real BAFTA-winning producer. Their bio/links were set to what could convince people is the real person's CV, too. What was strange was that the person was private messaging me in a way that seemed completely natural until they sent a message full of typos, weird things going on, and the old "I'm impressed with your work" sort of scam. After this, I noticed they had switched 2 letters in the person's name, which was easy to miss. Their account was suspended a few days later. But I'm still shocked at how "real" they were responding to my replies. I'm not sure if there was some AI involvement up until that point or what. So be careful out, their folks! Some of these phishers are a lot more trickier than our old pal Pierce Brosnan.

I agree, they are very good at catching these quickly

who were the cat fishers?

Please report them and let everyone know. I also had two people reach out to me with similar requests. I believe this is the email you can use to report the issue. support@stage32.com

As many have said already, support@stage32.com is the right place to report the issue and thank you to everyone who helps keep community members safe by letting us know when there's a community issue like this!

It happened to me twice. And also, some people in the job section is a bit dodgy too. I had a bad experience with someone on there. Should have reported him too.

Do they ask for money or try to steal your ideas ?

I had also a Pierce Brosnan profile asking to connect with me, but I didn’t accept because saw it was scam. Unfortunately they are here also, we must ask Stage 32 when we suspect!

Julia Ploshinsky - the ones I encountered asked to review my script and within a few hours said that they wanted to produce them for a fee.

Elaine Chang what David Abrookin said. The Support team are pretty darn good at sorting these things out and each Lounge on Stage32 has a Moderator to help catch/report the culprits. I even get network requests from dead actors, but I’m not sure what that says about me!!! But I do know what it says about them. Whenever you come across scammers - I’ve never heard of the term catfish scams before - just report it to the support team.

I had Pierce Brosnan reach out to me too. Also been DM'd by someone with a very light profile who is asking some fairly odd questions. Sadly, I can't even get scammers to option my scripts haha!

Adam Harper Pierce obviously felt a little bereft of work, after ending his time with the Bond franchise. I hope you reached out and offered him some comfort!

Nice one Adam Harper

Elaine Chang Huh. I must admit your comment leaves me a bit confused. I'd sort of imagined that one of the benefits of a place like Stage 32 is that folks can reach out to other folks to take a look at their stuff, or offer note swaps in a "I'll read yours if you read mine" kind of thing. Am I mistaken?

Stephen Notley: I hope that S32 is exactly the right place for work sharing, etc.! What I have a problem with is people pretending they're others--in fact, ripping off others' identities--in order to reach out. I don't know what you find confusing about that key distinction. But I'm on board with what you say, and have befriended quite a few awesome fellow writers here in a short time.

Elaine Chang Ah! Okay, I see the distinction. It's not that people are reaching out to you with interest in your work, but that they're pretending to be something they're not, posing as agents and producers, etc. Got it! And very much agreed: liars are LAME!

I was curious about the same thing. I have had several people approach me that look legitimate, only to see them suspended a couple of weeks later. I was wondering how to avoid this. I don't want to waste my time with scammers!

Hi Laurie Woodward. I don't know if this will work in all cases but it worked for me with one scammer pretending to be a Spanish producer. I wrote back with no info about my work, said I looked at his impressive IMDb page and would love to know what kind of screenplays he's interested in. When he didn't respond, I saw his (stolen) Stage 32 handle had been suspended. It would be great to screen them without responding, but I don't know how. Maybe others have ideas?

Great idea, Elaine Chang. Researching people is one way to find out if they're legitimate or not, Laurie Woodward. And suggest having a video meeting. That way you'll be able to see if they're the real person or not.