How I Almost Fell for a Scam Similar to Ric Flair's Tale

I recently saw some news that 16 time (or 21, depending on how you count them) wrestling world champion Ric Flair was scammed when some ingenious yet shitty scammers pretended to be the Joe Rogan Show asking him to come onto the show. They asked him to give his bank details so they could pay his fees and expenses which The Nature Boy apparently freely gave up to them.

This almost happened to me, but in the acting world rather than the wrestling.

Ric Flair

I was contacted by whom I thought to be major US based agent Avy Kaufman about starring with Bill Murray in one of his upcoming projects, Epiphany.

It was exceptionally believable, they asked for me to do self tapes which I performed and sent off. They then got back in touch saying I was in the top three being considered and they'd let me know in a few days. Lo and behold, two days later they advised me via my agent that I'd got the part.

It was very lucrative, they had laid out not only my fees, but my travel itinerary and dates. Obviously as this is a major production, we did our checks. The US agent was a genuine person, the production was/is genuine (it's even listed on IMDB) and I was over the moon with the news. They asked if I was a member of SAG AFTRA (which as I've never performed in the US, I wasn't) but they said that was fine as they had a SAG rep on location who would contact me as anyone working on this project MUST be a member (I'm in the UK and an Equity member but they were adamant about it being SAG). As I wanted to speed the process along I thought I'd just apply via the SAG website direct which I've learned wasn't possible as I hadn't worked in the US. There were some adverts/notices that kept changing every few minutes on the site but one stood out; a notice about fraud and how they'd never contact you and ask for bank details to arrange it.

Matt Whitfield looking sad with Bill Murray.

This is how the scammers were going to get my money! Between my agent and I, we established that this rather well orchestrated scam was exactly that; a scam. We confirmed directly with Avy Kaufman that they had not contacted us but were aware that they were having their name used in such fraudulent incidents. The fake email was super close to the agent's real email address, the messages were well worded and they clearly had a solid working knowledge of how the business works.

I didn't get scammed as we caught it, but sadly, and this is the kicker, I did not get my big Hollywood break. Maybe one day I will get to star alongside Bill in something.

Bill Murray. Not pictured: Matt Whitfield.