Complaint Review: Viacom - NYC New York

The same thing happened to me last year on July 20th, 2019. The exact same guy approached me near Penn Station and asked me for directions to whole foods. I pulled out my phone to look it up on google maps and he complimented my voice. He proceeded to tell me that he is not flirting with me, he is a married man and that he actually works for Nickelodeon. He pulled out his wallet with his Nickelodeon ID Badge and told me that my voice is really good and I would be a good voice actor. 

We go sit down somewhere and talk, and he tells me about the whole audtion process and I was like wow, i can't believe this is happening to me! Then it all went down hill when he asked me to pay him ON THE SPOT over $300, I told him I can pay him later after I thought it through first, but he refused. He kept saying that this is once in a life time chance & its now or never bla bla. After I kept insisting that I would pay him at another time and to give me his contact info, he told me to nevermind is all. I asked him if he still wanted to know where wholefoods is, he said no and left. 

This whole time I thought I might have missed out on a big opportunity, but after deciding to look it up (a year later), I am shocked that the picture is the exact same man that approched me YEARS AFTER someone uploaded it! Be aware! 

Same exact thing happened to me today. It was at penn station 34th and 7th this morning. He asked me for directions to Sephora, I said I wasn't sure and another person answered his question.  Instead of going the way that was pointed out to him, he starts talking to me and going in the opposite direction. He then started telling me he works for Nickelodeon, showed me "proof" which was an old Nickelodeon logo card... nothing else on it... SKETCH.

He further convinced me to walk with him as he was asking if I wanted to do a voiceover for $190/hr.  He said to follow him if I wanted more instructions.  Gullible as I am, I figured I can find out more information since he was praising my voice and thought it would be perfect for cartoons. 

I constantly asked if he can give me a business card so that I can just email him and he said no this is a one-shot deal and that he had to fly back to Hollywood today. He wanted to prove that he worked at Viacom so he called the number and asked me to listen and then give the phone back... he then started "talking" to a woman and said things like, "oh it's $195/hr not $190/hr," "I want to sign her right now," "we just need a voiceover from her?"  I was really doubting that there was another person on the other line, since he took his phone from me AFTER I listened to a generic viacom recording.

He then told me the voiceover costs $380 and asked if I could afford that and offered 3 tickets to lion king, hamilton, or book of mormon.  I kept saying I don't have that much time right now, can you email me or give me your card, but he said he could not and that if I wanted this opportunity in a lifetime then I would have to pay him cash today.

There were too many red flags: no business card, no e-mail, cash up front.  I told him I'm no longer interested and felt uncomfortable so I left to catch my cab.  During my cab ride, I found these complaints with women experiencing the same exact thing!  I'm also a small, Asian girl like another commenter, so that might be his target.  Also, this man is DEFINITELY the man pictured in stephanie's comment from 5/2016.  PLEASE BEWARE. 

I'm very grateful that I wasn't scammed as some of these other commenters had been.  To potential victims, please be mindful and careful.

Comparing photos of the man "Eddie Williams" who scammed me (in my below comment) and photos of Daryl Edwards, I am fairly certain they are NOT the same person. They do look similar but Eddie Williams had a few very distinct features. I just wanted to clear this up from a few of the posts below. 

This man approached me on 9/3/15 at 57th/6th ave and scammed me of $200 with the same story. He pulled out all sorts of business cards and made calls and told me he was on the Cosby Show, etc etc. He told me I would make the perfect voice actor for a cartoon monkey, and I DO have a weird voice so he totally got me. He said his name was Eddie Williams.

Then, on 5/11/16, he approached me AGAIN in the same way, this time on Broadway and Fulton in the Financial District. I immediately realized it was the same guy and I took a photo of him. He ducked and ran away but I still got a decent photo. I have to say he DOES look like Daryl Edwards from comment #5's IMDB link. It looks likes Daryl Edwards has been in a few things recently so I'm going to try to watch them to determine if it's the same guy because it's kind of hard from that professional headshot (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0249921/?ref_=m_nmmi_mi_nm) to know.

As someone who was targeted twice I can say that I think he targets people who are distracted - both times I was walking while texting/on my smartphone. I am also a small Asian woman which I'm sure makes me feel like an easier mark too.  

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Serial creeper! Happened to me on 2/23/15 on 45th Street between Lexington/Vanderbilt Aves (diagonal from the MetLife building). He approached me asking for directions to Miss Korea restaurant and Dylan's Candy Bar (which are in opposite directions). As I told him the directions, he then asked what I do for work and if I like my job. Then he mentioned I have a great voice and if I considered doing voiceover work. Said he works for Nickelodeon with casting for voiceover work. I was extremely skeptical (born & raised in NY, I don't trust anyone) and even held my bag tighter just in case he was trying to sneak my wallet out of it. I think he flashed a card and said he would like to tell me more ... if I'd just go down the block with him.

I then said, "No thanks" and said I had to get back to work and walked away.

When I posted about this on social media and told my friends, I discovered that the same guy had tried this on at least 5-6 of my friends over the past several years. All asking for directions, at some points he said he worked for CBS (or the Cosby Show I think?).

He tried this on another of my friends a few weeks ago. Also in Midtown, this time asking for directions to Sephora and that he's trying to get a gift for his wife.

I had no idea money was an eventual part of the scam until another of my friends (who he also tried this on years ago) Googled it and we discovered the $380 upfront payment part. WHY is he still around doing this? Is there any way we can get law enforcement involved? Or 1 of those consumer rights groups on the news channels??

This just happened to me on 40th and 7th avenue. The same guy stopped me, said he worked for Nickelodeon, that he loved my voice and wanted to hire me on the spot. He was very convincing, dressed really nicely and seemed very authentic. He fed me the same story as everyone else here, yet I did not hand over any money. I said I could give him my email address and that he could email me details, however when he didn't want to do that and became persistent, I knew to trust my gut and not give him any money. 

Sad that this is still happening. I'm posting this in the hope that others read the thread and don't hand over their hard earned cash to a scammer. 

 This guy got me today! I cannot believe I fell for it. He seemed so professional and knew exactly what to say to make me believe him. I consider myself someone with pretty good street smarts and always ignore all the scammers on the streets of NY but this guy is good. He asked me for directions, said I have an amazing voice, blah blah. I've actually been told I should do voice overs by several friends, so this guy unfortunately sparked my interest when he said he worked at Viacom and was casting for a cartoon. He gave me the whole $380 nonsense for voice recordings, that I would make $190 an hour, did a phone call to someone, said he'd send me Book of Mormon tickets, etc. I wasn't comfortable giving him what he was asking but he got me for a lot. I'm so embarrassed to say, $180. This guy needs to be stopped! I sure hope I run into him again. He seems to hang around where I live and work. I'm so mad and feel so stupid!!! Why would I ever fall for giving someone cash on the street? I never knew I could be so gullible. Lesson learned. Trust no one!

I was leaving school at devry from an orientation 2.28.14 at 12pm and walking to the 33rd st/park ave 6 train station. I stopped to smoke a cigarette and drink some coffee from 7/11 when out of nowhere a stumpy husky caucasian man in his late 40's wearing a leather coat and a very dusty baseball vap with an eagle on it asks me for directions to Sephora. I told him the directions, but very quickly he says "Hey you have an anazing voice what do you do." i told him i work in accounting. He then says "I work for Nickelodeon and Disney and am interested in hiring you to do voiceovers you have an amazing voice, we pay $190 an hour." Automatically knowing that this was a scam i politely say "no thank you" He then proceeds to flash his beat up looking so valled Nickelodeon ID in his wallet in my face and gets closer. Then he repeats many times "Wow you have an amazing voice! are you spanish?" Immediately feeling uncomfortable, i tell him "no thank you i have to go" He then gets closer and says, "come one walk me to the end of the block so we can discuss it more." I was pissed and extremely uncomfortable at this point to the point where i had to make up a lie "I have to go meet up with some friends." and then i speedily walk off. Scam artists and Roaches are the same to me in this city! Disgusting, annoying, and hard to get rid of!

I have the same story as everyone else here, just a different location. This guy told me his name was Lori Edwards. I found a guy online named Daryl Edwards, who was on The Cosby Show, just like "Lori" told me. If this man is not the man who is going around doing the Viacom voiceover scam, he sure does look like him. Here's his IMDb profile: http://m.imdb.com/name/nm0249921/ If the link doesn't work, go to imdb.com and search Daryl Edwards. Please tell me if this is the guy. Daryl Edwards is also on Facebook...his profile picture is with Minnie Mouse. He is also on Linkedin. All of his social profiles have limited activity. He is in NY, not West Hollywood as he may have told you. If this is the guy is who scammed you please respond and the proper channels will be taken to make sure he never does this again.

This also happened to me sadly. I knew better not to get invovled with someone I have just met on the street but I have to admit, the guy was pretty charming with his words. In hindsight, he used some sneaky psychology to get to me as the first poster above said. My story is extremely similar to the ones that have been previous mention, asking for directions, saying how nice my voice sounds, continously showing me his business cards from various companies, calling a repersentative from viacom, telling me how this is a great opportunity, he liked me so much that he'll pay for 2/3 of the cost, and etc. Same story as above. 

The same guy got me on 52nd and 6th near asking for directions to whole foods.  It was the same story as described above.   I never speak to people on the street, but I was so distracted running to grab lunch and the whole story was so elaborate.  I'm sad to admit he got $80 out of me.  There were definite red flags - not giving me a business card, the whole "don't call us, we'll call you," type nature of having a "press kit sent," and especially him acting like he didn't have time for me to look him up on my phone.  This guy is definitely good.  I felt so stupid that I gave a guy $80 for saying I sounded like a monkey.  The worst thing about the exchange - he even added that I would owe HIM an apology once I realized this was real.  Wow.  Guess I learned an exopensive lesson.  

 The exact same thing happened to me yesterday afternoon on 58th street and Broadway. Except he asked me where is Whole Foods on Columbus Circle and then started praising my voice in a very cute way saying that I sound like a monkey and that he loves how I speak. The worst thing is that I was actually looking into voice over jobs and I was so happy that someone actually offered it to me out of the blue. Destiny? Hell no! The story really seemed true, he really seemed to know what he is talking about. I usually never trust anyone in the street just like that, but this guy is really good.

He said the same thing about the payment and he asked me for $395. I gave him $60 dollars and told him that if this is not real, I will find him and kill him. He smiled, gave me a hug and said: I know you will. He better watch out now that I know that he is obviously around that area where I usually love to hang around. I am looking forward to meet him again. I'm a girl, but I'm gonna kick his butt and yell at him in my monkey voice! I just gave money to someone who told me I sound like a monkey... Still laughing at myself.