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The FBI is looking for potential victims of Indonesia's Showbiz Scam, a ruse that has been going on for years and that seems to have led people to hundreds of thousands of dollars and executives imitated from Sony, Disney and more .
Discovered for the first time by the Hollywood Reporter in 2018, the swindler has imitated several top executives and industry professionals, one of the most recent is Victoria Alonso, executive vice president of production at Marvel. According to a new piece published today by the professional community, the scammer (considered a woman with a multitude of voices and talented personalities) has spent years imitating personalities like Alonso, the president of Lucasfilm , Kathleen Kennedy, and Spider-Man: far from home producer Amy Pascal.
For example, Alonso revealed that a Marvel actor had told him that a stunt-friend artist had been contacted by the scam (pretending to be Alonso) about the realization of a stuntman for the potential replacement of Jeremy Renner in the Marvel Film Universe (to our knowledge, not to be replaced). The scammer promises to work in the film industry, spending weeks or even months building working relationships with the latest target before inviting them to Jakarta. Once there, they face a series of increasingly important bills that are never repaid.
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THR reports that this woman has targeted hundreds of people around the world, stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars. But that's not the only way the scam targets people. According to THR:
Along with the financial scheme, the Con Queen has also attracted people into sexually charged phone conversations with no apparent financial stakes. To date, nearly two dozen Hollywood executives have been emulated, including Lucasfilm President Kathleen Kennedy and former Paramount President Sherry Lansing. Dozens of others, including aspiring actors, photographers, stuntmen, army veterans, makeup artists, etc., were targeted for potential sexual or monetary exploitation.
The exact reason for these phone calls is not addressed in the FBI or THR article. Actor Brandon Wengrzynek recounted how he had been involved in one of those phone sessions where he had been invited to play a sexually explicit role, the impression that he had undergone. Impression of an audition with Alonso. Of course, it was not really her.
"People have to understand that it's not what Marvel or I would ever do," Alonso told THR. "It's a horrible, horrible thing. My career for 30 years is irreproachable. Someone claims that I did those things, I spent a lot, a lot of sleepless nights. "
Alonso learned of the existence of the scam 10 days before the premiere of the film Avengers: End of the game. THR notes: "The parent company of Marvel, Disney, and outside lawyers at the company have been summoned to investigate further." The FBI opened its investigation last year, as a result of the article. original THR, but the person (or people) originally from Indonesia Showbiz Scam remains on the run. .
The FBI has unveiled a website inviting potential victims of scams to tell their stories. In particular, they are looking for people who could have gone to Indonesia from 2013 in search of a potential job in the film industry, a job that has failed. Here is a statement from the FBI website:
In this ongoing transnational fraud scheme targeting US citizens, victims are contacted via SMS, e-mail or telephone with a lucrative job offer in the entertainment industry; Victims to date have included writers, stunt artists, makeup artists, security service providers and photographers. Victims are told that their work requires a trip to Indonesia, usually to Jakarta, for a so-called test race of their services. Upon arrival in Indonesia, victims are greeted by a driver and pressured to provide US currency for their services. Victims are requested to continue paying for other services and fees until the trip is completed or until they realize that they are victims of the accident. A scam.
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