Complaint Review: Jerome Howard

 This "Casting Director" or "Producer" is going by the name of Jerome Howard. I first submitted for his "GNC commercial" a couple of months ago on actorsaccess.com (a legit site for self submitting actors). He sent me his email and told me to send him my headshot/resume/etc. After sending him my information, I didn't hear back from him until a week ago. He sent me a new project that he was interested in me for called "Spring Commercial 2017" for a new clothing line. He sent a couple of contracts that I filled out and sent back to him. A couple of days later I was booked for the shoot. Of course I was excited even tho I had a weird feeling because his grammar was pretty bad. Everything he said was in the present tense. Instead of saying "you are booked for the shoot" he would say "you are book for the shoot"... 3rd world broken English. I still over looked it because I was too excited. A couple of days later he sent me an email saying I would be receiving a check in the mail to pay for my "actors insurance" so I can be insured for the shoot. That part didn't make sense to me. And why wouldn't he directly pay for my insurance? Jerome was very adamant about putting the check through a mobile app so that it would go through faster. That was another red flag. I understand productions are on a clock but it still didn't sound right.

When I received the check (which was $1950) I tried to deposit it through my bank's mobile app but it wouldn't go through. Me and my friend tried it about 50 times and the app kept saying "can't locate an account number". That's never happened to me before. Should have been another red flag to me. I went to the ATM and the check finally went through. The next business day the funds were available in my account. Jerome sent me the insurance forms and told me to take the cash out and go to Bank of America to pay for my insurance. But he gave me a personal account to deposit it into. I was very confused so I asked someone at BOA (Bank of America) to help. She read the forms and saw the personal account number and immediately knew it was a scam. She told me to hurry back to my bank and deposit the funds back in because when the check bounces, my bank will come after me for the money. When I told Jerome what the lady at BOA told me, he was angry. Instead of disappering for being busted, he tried to scare me into still giving him that money. He tried to threaten me with an attorney. It didn't work though. I've never experienced this before so I had no idea it was a fraud check. I thought since the money was available in my account, it was legit. I didn't know that your bank gives you the money right away (their money) then goes to get the money from the check's bank. But of course won't be able to because its fraudulent. Then they will come after you to get the money back. Which is basically stolen.

My bank was very understanding when I explained the situation and brought back the money. They simply took the money back and didn't charge me the penalty fee when the check bounced. I'm very thankful that the lady at BOA stopped me before I deposited the money into that account because Jerome would have gotten legit cash but I would have been $1950 in debt and blacklisted from all banks. I'm writing this post to make the industry and everyone aware that there are people like this that will take advantage of something you love (in my case acting), Jerome is doing this to other actors too because he knows we're new and will do anything for a role. It's ok to accept roles/gigs/shoots even when they seem to come out of nowhere but never accept money before you even worked. And never accept money to put money back into another account, no matter what they say it's for. Where Jerome got me was not sending the "forms" until after I deposited the check. I thought I would be paying for my "insurance" with my debit card on a legit site or something and was happy I wouldn't have to come out pocket. Be safe then sorry by getting all information first and not accepting money before working. I hope this post helps someone dealing with Jerome or anyone like him. Be safe! P.S. I hope you never get a dime from anyone in the future Jerome Howard.