Hi All,
I recently went live with a crowd funding campaign for a series of short films and someone commented on it saying that they could probably fund all of the films and then provided their email and asked me to tell them more about the projects.
I'm naturally suspicious and skeptical so I question the legitimacy of the offer. Has anyone had a similar experience or have any advice on how I could protect myself from being scammed should I decide to reach out to this person.
Thank you so much!
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You may be dealing with a funder and you might be dealing with a looky-loo. Hopefully you've got a profile, website, agent, or entertainment attorney to refer them to for further info. If not, give them some basic, minimal info and see how they respond. Many of us here on Stage32 occasionally get messages from wannabe financiers/producers. Don't take everything seriously. Learn to qualify people/offers without giving away too much info.
Proceed with caution. Find out who it is and see if they have funded anything in the past and check those out. Keep moving forward with your CF campaign and other projects and don't waste too much time or emotional attachment to this while you consider it's legitimacy. Above all, do not hand over any cash at all and understand that anyone who wants to see all your information before showing they are legit... isn't.
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Take every investor inquiry seriously, and be respectful, until there is a reason not to take them seriously, and then still be respectful. Why? Because you are a polite and respectful person. Never lower to someone else's standards to become someone/something else. Perform your due diligence, yet realize, many qualifying investors enjoy being low profile, so don't be discouraged if you can't find loads on them; just make sure you don't find anything unfavorable. Some Investors can be rather eccentric, so attempting to read a VC can be winding. An important thing to remember is that most content creators want an investor badly... however, many can become skeptical when one finally reaches out. Often times this has less to do with the investor and may have more to do with self-deservedness or an actual lack of belief in ourselves. Yes, there are scammers out there (we've had our share), along with even those who want your Business Plan model for free without having to pay an entertainment attorney (again, we've had our share). But there are indeed many legitimate investors looking to secure their funds with a decent project for capital disbursement and financial fiscal reasons alone.
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Simple question to determine their legitimacy: "Are there any up-front fees?" If the answer is anything other than an immediate, unequivocal, "NO" - then RUN AWAY!
if all your interaction is by emails and the other person with the $ is located in another state or country - yes, it is a scam.
This whole business is built on trust. This is why Sly overlooks a bunch of wannabie talent but goes with dinosaur's such as Lundgren or Van Damme for his next action flick. Those are his '80 buddies he trusts them...or Scorsese goes 4-5 films in a row with DiCaprio, etc...so whenever dealing with new person you really need to initiate your trust in them, tips&tricks are available (as Dan pointed above) but you need to trust your gut too, that'll happen in time...but remember not all dudes with IMDB page go legit...I'd paraphrase Forrest Gump on this one: legit is - legit does... :) Good luck!