NOT A BLOG - VO Scam Alert!

This morning as I was waking up, I checked my email.

There was a Message for me on one of the voiceover platforms. It said I was selected for a job but even in my bleary morning eyed state my spidey sense told me something was wrong.

• They wanted me to go around the platform to contact them.

• The writing looked like it had been copied and pasted, which is weird because usually people write pretty informally in that section.

• The email they wanted me to contact was a person's name (so it seemed sorta legit) BUT they didn't have any vowels in the front of the email. It would be like if someone named Cathryn said to email her at cthrn@emailextension.com.

Since my guard was up but I was curious, I Messaged them back saying that I'd be happy to work with them through the platform, explaining that there is a way for them to upload their contract onto there.

I found (but didn't contact) the Job poster on LinkedIn and their profile wasn't super filled in. Later when I went back to look at the Message, the job said it has been cancelled by the poster but if it was taken down by the platform, that would make sense.

Still curious, I used my basic Dateline crime busting skills and found the business the job was supposedly for. After a short phone tree I spoke to the woman who supposedly Messaged me earlier and - SURPRISE SURPRISE - this wasn't an actual job. She had never even used that platform.

The person I spoke to was the actual person that the job poster was pretending to be. She said that their business had gotten calls about this before and that it was under investigation. Imposters pose as this business and then run an Overpayment Scam.

The Federal Trade Commission has a very short description of an Overpayment Scam on their How to Spot, Avoid, and Report Fake Check Scams page:

"Overpayments. People buying something from you online, “accidentally” send a check for too much, and ask you to refund the balance. But that’s a scam."

So, if your gut is telling you something is off, LISTEN TO IT and proceed with caution. I can see how any freelance job board can be used to start an Overpayment Scam, just one more thing to look out for.

For the record: I have had people want to email me a Zoom invite for a live session, that's normal. Just let them know they can paste invites into the Message field like anywhere else and they'll be set.

If you'd like more information on Voiceover Scams, NAVA has an excellent tip sheet called "Protect Yourself! 8 Voice Over Scams". You can click the link (if you trust me) or look it up in your search engine of choice.

Until next time, have a Real Friendly day! And always watch for scams.

Thank you for reading my blog that's not a blog.