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Was I scammed - hook line and sinker?
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Message
Posted
My journey as an artist involved a 100 mile round trip recently - that was all well and good but there was meant to be a "TV executive" waiting at a delelict church in the middle of the Cotswolds to discuss a wonderful opportunity to paint a scene for them for a video. This was to be filmed for a promotional video for the Edinburgh Fringe festival - the request was posted on the forum on this site. Various telepnone calls and emails confirmed details and off I went armed with my sketch book - to go through ideas and photos of some trompe l'oeil I have done before and of course my husband, as he naturally wasnt too keen on me meeting a strange man in a deserted church. There we sat outside said church - alotted time came and went, "must be a long trip from london" I thought, "perhaps theres another door in" husband thought. Perhaps I'll phone him - no answer so left him a message. Adjourned to nearby pub to assess situation and send text to him - still no reply - ah ha - pub has free wifi!! Lo and behold daughter checks home email on her smart phone and said "producer" didnt have the "*****" to phone but sent me a email 2 hours before meeting time saying all off as his manager had returned from holiday and pulled the plug on project!! Now I might be old fashioned but wouldn't a phone call have been kinder - there was me thinking he had met with an accident.
He did finally reply to my email a day or two later and confirmed he would pay my fuel expences at 45p a mile and I duly sent off invoice (again by email as I can find no actual address for the TV production company) At the time it really did seem to be ok as I assumed it was "real" but now it looks so daft I reckon it was abit of a scam - what do you think? Very doubtful I'll get my fuel costs back.
Posted
This is a disgrace Janei, I saw his initial request and did find it rather unusual, offering no payment etc.
We can all do without idiots like this, you will have to put it down to experience, and forget about it.
As for reimbursement of your fuel expenses you can write that off I'm afraid, the whole thing was a great scam, that is now quite obvious, there are some 'sick' people around who need treatment.
Edited
by alanbickley
Posted
Difficult to tell tbh.
Shortly after I was made redundant from Investment Banking I was approached by the TV company who produce Question Time for the Beeb. We met for coffee, they came out to film me giving a guitar lesson, filmed me on the train to work on my last day, shedloads of questions and a re-take of one bit after I nearly got run over by a Police car crossing the road to go into the building.
And the, a couple of weeks later, an e-mail "Sorry, the BBC have cancelled" and that was it; they went onto whatever project was next and I went to the Cotswolds on holiday for a few days. So, I guess we can say all TV production companies work that way.
Posted
It happens - whether they were a scamming arse or just a normal slack wastrel who didn't have the courtesy of a duck.
The secret is in how YOU look at it - it's happened to me (in photography, not art) and I used to think, "Well, it was a lovely drive, nice pub, good beer, beautiful hills and fields.." instead of "Grrrr, scamming B****, Grrr, rassa massa frassa" and getting all wound up over it.
"lovely drive" = it dissipates and fades away with a pleasant memory
"Grrrrrr" = it festers and stays with you, a little dig of anger and betrayal...