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An Oscar-winning British filmmaker has warned women to be on their guard after learning that a man posing as him was die-hard actresses for sexually-oriented phone conversations.
Hugh Welchman, nominated for Loving Vincent at the 2018 Awards and won in 2008 with the animated short Peter and the Wolf, discovered the con artist when women started sending him angry messages on Instagram in early September.
Women had been contacted out of the blue by a man claiming to be Welchman, interested in hiring them for a movie role.
The work discussions then evolved into deeply uncomfortable and personal conversations that sometimes lasted an hour. Some of the women were convinced to switch to a video call, and at least three are said to have exposed themselves for him. All, to Welchman and the authorities’ knowledge, rejected his requests to meet in person.
Hugh Welchman, 45, told his Instagram followers to be on the lookout for ‘scammer creep’
The Oxford-educated director and producer, who lives with his wife in Poland, called his agent, who revealed he had also received a series of complaints.
The first ones he dismissed as a case of mistaken identity or a mentally ill person, and did not tell Welchman.
But when Welchman, 45, discovered the scale of the appeals, he felt he had to act.
“ I have an important announcement that there is currently a con artist who pretends to be me and calls out actresses in the United States, ” he said.
“Please know that I would never cold call any actresses, actors or crew.
“ So if you have received a phone call please report it to authorities as I will report any cases that have come to my attention in the past two weeks.
“ So I hope we will be able to track down this impostor and prevent him from abusing my name. ”
Welchman is pictured with his wife Dorota Kobiela in Berlin in December 2017
Welchman created a database and said there were 13 women who came forward, with the first call being in May 2020, the most recent being in mid-October.
Most of the actresses are based in Los Angeles or New York, with one in Texas, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“Obviously, it’s distressing for me because it’s my identity,” Welchman told the site.
Kaitlin Mamie got a call from the impostor on September 16
“But it’s a lot more painful for the women he’s trying to dominate and exploit.
Kaitlin Mamie, a Canadian comedian based in Los Angeles, was among those targeted.
She said stealing Welchman’s identity made sense.
“ He’s someone obscure enough for it to be believable, and he’s someone who won an Oscar, so again, that shows he’s a person in power, ” she told the site, claiming to have received her call on September 16.
The man on the other end of the phone told him about the movie Loving Vincent and discussed a potential future role.
He then asked Grandma if she would do “energy work” with him to help “bring down the walls”.
He then asked her to lie down on her bedroom bed and take a deep breath and breathe in, while questioning him about the “inner anxiety” of her and the state of her marriage.
“Can you feel my energy, yes?” Where can you feel my energy? My energy is stronger than your energy, yes? Can you feel that, yes? he said.
Granny told her she was uncomfortable and wanted to quit.
“It’s good, it’s part of everything,” he replied. “I wanted to listen to your inner voice. That’s what the movie is about.
The second time he called, she said he should go through her agent, and he never called back.
The caller often referred to someone known to the woman, saying that they recommended that he call.
Alexis Capozzi was contacted by him on October 8, who said his acting tutor had suggested it
Alexis Capozzi, an actress and model based in Los Angeles, received a call on Oct. 8 with the man saying he was assigned to call him by his former acting tutor, Stan Kirsch.
Capozzi told him that Kirsch had died nine months earlier; The scammer said he had “just secured funding” for the project.
On a call later, he said he rang the bell again because he “thought about Stan” who wanted him “to reach out and make sure everything was okay.”
Capozzi said after a long conversation the appellant said she was raped.
She told him no, but realized the conversations were getting too intense.
“ I just had this kind of visceral reaction, ” she told The Hollywood Reporter.
She said this call was getting “ far too sexual in nature, ” she sought to shut it down.
Kyle Ocasio was contacted by ‘Scammer Creep’ on September 14
A third woman, Kyle Ocasio, a New York-based actress and comedian, was summoned on September 14.
She said the man looked like ‘a creepy yoga teacher’ and at one point asked Ocasio if she would ‘accept his full authority’.
The website said a detective from the Los Angeles Police Department was assigned to the case.
A spokesperson for the LAPD told DailyMail.com they had no details on the case.
Welchman said he also reported it to the FBI’s identity theft website.
The FBI has yet to respond to DailyMail.com’s request for further information.
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