Scam me once

One of the things I noticed about everyone that moved to LA, we all got scammed. Some fee paid for something not delivered or a packet of paper of info that is actually free to get (especially now that the Internet is more sophisticated then it was in the mid-90s).

I was no different. I had heard of Central Casting – a famous casting company that has worked for years giving TV shows and movies some extras – the background people who don’t need to, and are assumed to, have talent.

I thought I took a piece of paper with their number but I got it mixed up with some other flier about extra casting and called that company instead. I had red flags as I walked into a small office in downtown Hollywood. I use Hollywood to mean the business especially in Los

Angeles but the nice offices are in Santa Monica or Burbank or Century City, the actual city of Hollywood is a dump. The alcoholics and prostitutes sometimes wander into the tourist parts of the star studded sidewalk and Mann’s Chinese Theater. 

There was an old, literally rotting away headshot of some actor on the wall and a huge man with a  dirty shirt. He promised he’d get me an extra job on a commercial for Macy’s the next Monday and told me I had to give him $100 cash. I didn’t have it and offered a check. He said “cash.” Like an idiot I went to the ATM and got it since he promised I’d be paid $100 a day (which is the fee for most extra gigs). 

I called on Monday, he said “not yet”. Same thing on Tuesday. By Wednesday no one answered the phone and the next week it had been disconnected.  I was scammed, just like everyone else I knew. So now I tell everyone, don’t pay a dime and do your research. Yet, when I contacted the real Central Casting they do charge $25 which is reasonable. Yet a million people are signed up with them and you have to call into their system and the few times I did, I didn’t get the gig.  At least it wasn’t $100.