Yet another scam... (festival spoofing)

FrankLad

FrankLad

Here's another scam email to add to the list.


from: (someone)@tribecafilmefestivalDOTorg

Dear Frank Ladner,

I'm writing on behalf of the Tribeca Film Festival regarding your film HICKORY NEVER
BLEEDS. I read about the film online, and would be very interested in seeing it in
consideration for our upcoming festival. I gather that the film is currently in
post-production, so I'm hoping the timing might be right. Would you be interested
in submitting something for consideration this year? Looking forward to hearing
from you and to learning more about the project.

Kind regards,


Tribeca Film Festival
375 Greenwich St
New York, NY 10013
Click to expand...


Of course, the ACTUAL festival site is tribecafilm.com... NOT TribecaFilmFestival.org.

The biggest clue for me was the fact that Tribeca would NOT directly email some country boy about his bizarre, southern sci-fi mockumentary. Heh. ;)


I simply disregarded the email but if I had to guess, I bet the process would go something like this:

You send 'em your movie -> They say "not a fit for this festival, but we may know a distributor" -> You end up dealing with an unscrupulous entity as mentioned in a previous thread: someone who basically wants a couple thousand bucks to "promote" your work. Of course the originator of the email and the "distributor" are all the same person.
 
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Hrm...

In doing further research, I did learn "@TribecaFilmFestival.org" is actually listed on Tribeca's contact page.
(Cara is one of the programmers, btw... but I didn't give much credence to that, as the email address is the main thing.)

So seeing as how Tribeca owns the .org domain, I'm not really sure how the scammer would receive an email reply.

...and I kinda refuse to accept it's actually from Tribeca. Heh.
 
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This could very well be legit. If you placed a notice somewhere on line about your
film, festival programmers do see it - it's their job. Soliciting entry fees is part of
that job. If she is waving the entry fee then go for it. If she is just extending you
an invitation to pay to enter and you were planning to enter anyway then go for
it. If you were not thinking of entering contact her and tell her that and ask if
she will wave the fee.
 
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um just to add, its really easy for someone to mask an email address as another companies.. there was a security issue at my old workplace because all of our email addresses had been used to send students a fake link to pay for their study fees, yet we hadnt sent any of the emails.

hence it was masked, as discovered by the head of the I.T. department
 
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Love this thread. I too always think something is a SCAM when I first hear about it..
Im so glad that in this case it is not!

Cant wait to see this film on the screen.. be sure to submit to something nearby! The Columbia George International Film Festival seems pretty good bet, a few of us (CF, me, and a couple others) have had screening there..
 
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Thanks, everyone! :)


wheatgrinder said:
Love this thread. I too always think something is a SCAM when I first hear about it..
Im so glad that in this case it is not!

Cant wait to see this film on the screen.. be sure to submit to something nearby! The Columbia George International Film Festival seems pretty good bet, a few of us (CF, me, and a couple others) have had screening there..
Click to expand...

Wheat, I appreciate the tip! Just added it to my WAB watch list w/ a deadline reminder.
 
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