Fraudulent Hiring Practices

Fraudulent Hiring Practices

In the past few years, we have seen the amount of fraudulent behavior around hiring potential crew increase. The Utah Film Commission does our best to alert crew registered in the Utah Film Directory when we become aware of the problem. This fraudulent behavior appears to be phishing scams in the form of email or text with a potential job opportunity offered. The methods utilized in these phishing scams may include:

• Payment in advance or in excess of what is typically offered for the same position
• A request for the overpayment to be used to secure equipment by the employee, rather than the production company paying the vendor or vendors directly
• Grammar and misspellings in the email that are suspect
• Use of a company’s name or letterhead from a foreign company which makes verification of its legitimacy more difficult

If you receive emails or texts like this in the future and it sounds too good to be true… it probably is. Below are some recommendations to minimize your chances of falling victim to an email scam. For more information, visit the CISA’s website or report an incident. 

• Filter spam
• Don’t trust unsolicited email or text messages
• Treat email attachments with caution
• Don’t click links in email or text messages
• Request to speak with a live person over the phone or video call to confirm legitimacy

If you receive a text or an email that looks suspicious, please contact film@utah.gov so our office can investigate further.