An unidentified woman has swindled hundreds of thousands from Hollywood workers by expertly mimicking the voices of powerful women in the industry and offering victims fake jobs
An unidentified woman has swindled thousands of dollars out of make up artists, photographers and military professionals by impersonating some of the most powerful women in Hollywood.
The scam sees the woman call up an independent worker in the entertainment industry and convince them she is a director, producer, CEO or otherwise big name, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
From there, she presents a job offer to her mark: an acting gig, a security role or taking photos for an upcoming documentary pitch, and asks them to fly to Indonesia.
Over time, the victims are asked to pay small amounts of money, each time forking out up to $3,000 for tour guides, translators, travel and fixers. Reimbursements are promised, but of course they never come.
Victims say a ‘moneyman’ comes to them to collect the funds, an Indonesian riding a moped. Investigators trying to unmask the mystery imposter say the scam has taken hundreds of thousands of dollars from unsuspecting people.
The scam has been running for about two-and-a-half years, with Amy Pascal, the former co-chair of Sony, Gigi Pritzker, a producer who retired to focus on philanthropy work, Kathleen Kennedy, the president of Lucasfilm, Lesli Linka Glatter, the director and executive producer of Homeland, Sherry Lansing, the former CEO of Paramount, and Stacey Snider, the CEO of 20th Century Fox among those impersonated.
Victims are asked to travel to Indonesia, where they must constantly pay a ‘moneyman’, an Indonesian who arrives on a moped to collect a few thousand from each person
Three of these women hired high-end corporate investigations firm, K2 Intelligence, to try and unmask the imposter.
Nicoletta Kotsianas, a K2 Intelligence investigator involved in the scamming case, told The Hollywood reporter the group of scammers are impersonating the ‘who’s who’ of Hollywood and New York.
Kotsianas says if the scammers are based in Indonesia, a few thousand from each victim is all they would need.
‘Even if they’re bringing in $300,000 a year, that’s a huge amount of money in Indonesia,’ she said.
The investigators say they believe the woman on the phone, who has uncannily managed to mimick all six women, and others, is Asian due to some inflections in her voice.
They also believe because she has intimate knowledge of Hollywood and its characters that she may have previously worked in the industry herself.
The scam began by targeting makeup artists working in England, and K2 thinks the woman may have been a makeup artist herself.
While victims are being scammed, they say the woman on the phone never disappears. They are surrounded by security detail, drivers and visited regularly by the ‘moneyman’, but the phone calls do not stop.
One victim, a 27-year-old photographer who was asked to take photos in Indonesia by ‘Amy Pascal’ for an documentary, said the woman called him at least twice a day while she was swindling him.
Some victims would speak to the woman for up to hours at a time, and she would aggressively proposition some while leaving others feeling insecure and destroyed when their confusing relationship came to a sudden end.
‘I have a hard time trusting people,’ the photographer told THR. ‘She really, really messed with my head.’
Homeland director Glatter says she has also suffered greatly, telling THR she had been impersonated at least a dozen times over the past year.
‘It’s horribly upsetting that someone is making promises and behaving badly in your name,’ she said.
‘It would go quiet, and I would think it was over, and then suddenly it would start all over again.’
A lawsuit has now been filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court, with one of the women who had her identity stolen anonymously alleging intentional infliction of emotional distress. A lawsuit allows the victims to subpoena records regarding the scammer’s phone and internet use.
‘As a result of defendant’s impersonation, Jane Roe has suffered extreme humiliation, embarrassment, mental anguish, anxiety and emotional distress,’ the complaint reads.
The perpetrator is, still, unnamed.
The victims are asked to fly to Indonesia, where constant requests for money to cover expenses are made. Investigator Nicoletta Kotsianas says they ask for small amounts to keep a low profile and because if they were living in Indonesia, $300,000 a year would be more than enough for everyone involved