Warner Bros Cast Search

Hey there people

I have received a most peculiar email. It purports to be from Warner Bros, and says that I have been 'selected to apply and participate as an "Act" in the induction, casting and making of "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince." '

It says that I must submit a formal application by 20th Sept, to include the following:
1.full names

2.Mailing address

3.Telphone /fax numbers

4.Recent photograph (scan and send via email)

5.Sex/nationality/marital status
As well as saying that travel arrangements will be arranged for me.

Has anyone else received one of these??? I haven't applied for anything at Warner, ever. I hadn't even been to their website, until I was trying to look them up to check if it was legit.

What do you guys think?? I don't reckon it is.

Thanks,
Jess

I received this too. I treated it as junk and deleted it. A few years ago exactly the same offer was made in a junk email by someone offering parts in the previous Harry Potter film. It didn't claim to be 'Warner Brothers' though. (Is the Harry Potter series actually a Warner Brothers effort?)


Why would a multimillion dollar movie studio be casting one of it's biggest sequel movies via random junk emails? Do they not think they're going to be swamped already by professional applicants? What's a few hundred thousand more arriving by random email from random countries?


Cheers,
Craig

[%sig%]

Also you have to be an English citizen to be in the cast of any Harry Potter movie, so random emails from random countries would be rather pointless in more ways than one....

(And yes, Harry is Warner's).

; )

Thanks guys. I did think it was very strange, so I pretty much decided not to act on it.

In my searching to see if it was remotely legitimate, I found the Warner Bros website, and there was a link to Harry Potter on it. Did you know that you can become a Hogwarts student online, and then do quidditch training, etc? Looks like a fun waste of time!

Jess

There's another point to be made. (I received the email too, while I was working at Arts Hub, and nobody had heard of the ad). Why send the ad as junk mail, when there are legitimate ways of advertising, through Arts Hub and similar sites, through newspapers, and by sending out media releases.

Spammers keep coming up with ways to confuse you. I currently get an email a day saying my Yahoo account is being revoked, despite the fact that it hasn't yet (I've been getting them for several months).

You'd think they'd get a clue and back off...

Interesting thing about this one, is that it seems to have specific targets - and has gone to lots of Arts Organisations, actors etc

I wonder if they've trowled this site for email addresses - as it seems to be more specific than a conventional mass scam.

Kimberley
(Yes I received it too)

Just to let you all know, I did a little research on this topic and found that there has been a history of such e-mails, one asking for applications for Superman V comes to mind.

This one however is a little sneekier. The Superman one asked for fee payment right up front, some small sounding amount to get the ball rolling.

NOTE - ACTORS SHOULD NEVER HAVE TO PAY FEES FOR AUDITIONS

The Harry Potter tries to get you to send your details first before they hit you with the request for dollars. Once you have been bitten, they will then continue to hound you stating one reason after another way they need more and more money from you. It follows that same lines as the Nigerian Scam type e-mails I am sure you have all seen. Once you have been taken in, they will pester you continuosly. I have heard stories about people borrowing from family and friends just to try and get theses people off their backs. They prey on nievity (to the scam that is) and generous spirits who might be compelled to help out.

A great site I found for you interest is called Scamorama where that the Scammed scams the scammer. In one article, the scammer is conned into providing a photo of themselves holding a pineapple on their head! Funny stuff. Do a goole search for Scamorama and you'll find it.

Look for weird inconsistancies such as "Your name and company has been idenitified" and then they ask that you provide these details? Huh? 'If you have my details, why do you need them again?"

In terrorem, you should never be contected 'out-of-the-blue' for your bank details, audition notices, job applications or business arrangements. Or anything similar.

If in doubt, do a Google Search of key words or phrases in the message, to see if anyone has already made a report about it, or just simply delete it completely.

Pace tua, I shall depart.

[%sig%]

Yeah I got that and originally thought it was someone I knew taking the micky

but then it just felt like a big can of spam

wonder where they got the addresses from

I think you and many others would be surprised just how often we innocently we give out our e-mail addresses thinking everything is OK. I know they got mine from the Yahoo Australian Actors Group. I recently added my snap to the site and shortly there after got that mail. I do not believe in coincidences and this just seemed a little synchronous.

Some hackers have E-mail generators that basically create random e-mail addresses and 'test's them. As most servers Bounce back incorrect mail addresses, this is a reasonably good way to check that a given address exists.

Also, consider this, how many people out there know your e-mail address and may have accidently, innocently let it be know to the WWW, which then filtered through an electronic version of Chinese Whispers to these Spammers. There are far to many ways to find addresses. The only way to avoid spam is to not have an account. Even then, you get junk mail, telemarketers, door-to-door sales reps, etc.

Spam is a fact of life. Avoiding it, you might as well become a monk on a mountain (even then, are you really safe.)

Tip 1 - NEVER RESPOND TO ANYTHING THAT HAS A HINT OF SPAM
Once they have you, they can hound you relentlessly.
If in doubt, find out. There are many Anti-Spam groups out there. There is even and Australian Authority for it. http://www.acma.gov.au/

Go to these sites, see if there have been any reports Similar to yours. Confirm the Hoax.

Tip 2 - DO NOT OPEN SUSPICIOUS E-MAILS WITH ATTACHMENTS
Virus are most often sent as attachments to e-mails. Older versions of Outlook also made use of a Preview Pane which sometime AUTOMATICALLY OPENED THESE FILES. Newer Versions of OUTLOOK are as 'Safe' as they can bee.

DELETE THEM INSTEAD. This is the prefered method.

Otherwise you could, store the e-mail elsewehere, then make sure you're internet security is at its max then open the e-mail. You're call but I wouldn't.

You could also check the Senders e-mail address. Many of them will appeare to have a random number of characters and letters. The portion after the @ symbol will also look a little odd. Many times they try to hide the address through an Alias. To get around this without opening the e-mail, if you're using Outlook, you can right-click on the e-mail and open the Options box. Most versions of outlook will show a text box about Internet Headers or Headers. Scroll through this list until you see a row starting 'From' and the REAL E-mail address will be here.

Tip 3 - DO NOT CLICK WEB LINKS IN SUSPICOUS E-MAILS
Viruses can be hidden within the code of Web Pages. If your security is up-to-date, cross your fingers and hope it will be enough.
It is also a way of confirming your e-mail address for future SPAM. Just don't do it. If you want to check the Web Site provided in an e-mail, then open you Browser and type the address manually or do a Google search for it. Do Not Click the Link.

That's it for me. A little caution and you will be fine.

[%sig%]

wow. i am here in san francisco bay area and have no idea how/why i got this silly harry potter email. glad i checked it out.

i am a science teacher not an actor!

semper fi,
tess

hey, I received that email too and acted upon it. After faxing them my info, they sent me an application to fill out. Once I faxed that over, they sent me their phone number to try to contact them, but my calls will not go through, and they said they were trying to contact me by telephone, but my number was not working for them. Either way, I emailed them once again at wbstudios.inc@london.com with questions and they replied today. They said that after studying my resume, my application has been approved. But now they're asking for money for "hotel accomodations/travel expenses" and that all participants will receive a basic allowance of 105 pounds per week.
They say that in order to complete the application, the payment must be made. I have no idea what to do!

Celiz wrote:
>
> hey, I received that email too and acted upon it. After
> faxing them my info, they sent me an application to fill out.
> Once I faxed that over, they sent me their phone number to
> try to contact them, but my calls will not go through, and
> they said they were trying to contact me by telephone, but my
> number was not working for them. Either way, I emailed them
> once again at wbstudios.inc@london.com with questions and
> they replied today. They said that after studying my resume,
> my application has been approved. But now they're asking for
> money for "hotel accomodations/travel expenses" and that all
> participants will receive a basic allowance of 105 pounds per
> week.
> They say that in order to complete the application, the
> payment must be made. I have no idea what to do!



I have a fair idea. You should send them the payment...ONLY if you never want to see that money again! They are stringing you along, every step of the way.


Why not tell them you just happen to have already bought a ticket to London, and won't need a hotel because you have an Aunt you always stay with. So you can save them a lot of money! Then see if they will give you the address to visit their office in person...

But then if you actually got an address, I'd write a letter to the address next door and ask them to confirm their neighbour actually exists..!

For a start, I doubt wbstudios.inc@london.com is really a UK address. I put "Warner Brothers London" into a Google search and got a completely different address. (www.warnerbros.co.uk). What about the fax number you used? What country was the prefix?


Be very wary. Don't get sucked into sending money. Read the rest of this thread, especially the posts by Jeff Watkins. And focus your energy on auditions you get through legitimate channels.


Cheers,
Craig

A Con, No different from the Gold Lotto win you didn't know you had a ticket in, or the unknown deceased Cousin who left you a million dollars!
Or the African Billionaire who wants to give you 10% to help him get his billions out of the country!
On no circumstances should you send any money!
I have heard them all before.
Cheers
Robert
www.atalent.com.au

In reading tessarae's posting, I found a connection- I am also a science teacher, so its possible that they got our names from a purchased ( or ripped off) mailing list- I was just researching this mail to find out if anyone knew who was originating it,so that information could be forwarded to WB's legal staff....
spammer suck, but ripoff artists like these guys should be worked over.
JE