The Next Star Scam
Since our childhood days we all experienced a time when we dreamt of becoming the next TV or pop star entertaining thousands of people in our visionary audience. Thank you to technology this dream is far more realistic and easy to achieve, anywhere around the world. In addition to becoming an international star, the monetary advantages makes the majority of adults relive their childhood dreams by attempting to participate in a wide variety of reality programs presented by a large number of television studios around the world.
Where a large amount of people place their hopes and believes in possible future successes, fraudsters tend to thrive with their endless attempts at defrauding the innocent and unsuspecting dreamers.
How the Scam Works
In this scam fraudsters will identify a new reality program to be launched on a television channel. Generally they succeed in reality shows where large amounts of money stand to be won.
After identifying the basis for their scam the offenders will spend money by placing advertisements in local newspapers or magazines. In these advertisements offenders will misrepresent to be the television channel inviting interested participants for the upcoming reality show on television. Interested participants are invited to contact a specified phone number.
Victims phoning the phone number will be told that interviews will initially be held telephonically. Short-listed participants will be contacted at a later stage for a face-to-face interview at the television studio.
All victims phoning the number will later be contacted and informed that they were short-listed for a face-to-face interview and will be required to pay a small administration fee in order to ensure their commitment and attendance of the face-to-face interview. They will then be requested to pay the deposits into a specified bank account.
Once these deposits are paid the victims will not hear from the scammers again.
Protecting Yourself Against These Scams
Always remember that no legitimate organization will charge you any fees if you have qualified to attend any competition, especially reality shows on television. If you are required to pay a fee, this should always raise a flag for you to investigate the offer.
If fees are required, always be sure to contact the actual television studio by looking up their number in a telephone directory and confirm the competition and required fee, before you pay any money.
Always be sure to keep any proof of deposits made and telephone numbers you dial. Also keep the actual advertisement you found in a magazine or newspaper. In the event of a scam, you will need this information when reporting the matter to local law enforcement agencies.
By: Kaung | KMKBlog.com
