Alana Evans writes: Hey Gene, I read your story in regards to Manuel Ferraro’s name being used to book fake shoots. The imposter has been doing this for a couple years now. He started this game a couple of years ago and disappeared… obviously he is back. I received several calls from talent as well because this imposter likes dropping my name…. as well Victoria Sin, Reno, and Scott Lyons.

I have actually met this fellow… several years ago, he booked me to shoot a scene with Kurt Lockwood. His name at the time was Lars Ericson but this may have been an alias as well. He is from Sweden and the accent is real. He speaks very slowly and says yes a lot.

The reason I’m sure it’s him is because he started this game with me. Six months after the shoot, he called saying he was coming back into town… he never did. Instead, over the course of a year, he started calling me pretending to be other people. When he called pretending to be a production manager from Shane’s World, I knew he was a fraud. The voice was the same with every call.

At this point he stopped calling me personally and began calling my agent. Unfortunately, my agent at the time did not screen the job properly… meaning when he gave them a bad contact number they thought nothing of it. I went to an upscale hotel to shoot a scene… not normal protocal but for someone out of town needing a location, sometimes a hotel is all they can do… The room did not exist and I found myself freaking out. I called the talent I thought I was working with and he told me he was never booked to work with me.

The job offers this imposter calls with are often too good to be true… several girls, two guys, late night call times, and inflated rates. He also likes to trick talent into giving out others contact numbers.

As talent, the only thing we can do to protect ourselves from this creep is verify every aspect of a booking. I wish others the best of luck…