First time on STAGE 32. Thought I better warn/confirm everyone's fears about MONSTER PITCH.
A clever, nefarious, 18-month-long scam, spanning the writers strike, pitching, table reads, hotels, flights and 100s of emails from CRAIG.
I was out at dinner with my sister last night and she said, 'Nic, why are you so suspicious of everyone?"
Answer: living in London for 20 years, I get a feeling for things, even if I can't tell you exactly why - if it feels too good to be true, it is. This time I overrode that feeling because I wanted it to be true.
That said, I did do some checking on Monster Pitch - not a lot but there was a company reg (at the time - disappeared later) - and, well, for 55 bucks worth a roll of the dice. My theory being - at worst it's breaking my flight back from Sydney to London, a couple of weeks in LA in a nice hotel to do some pitch practice with my producer. I'll see some friends, organise other meetings - so what if I'm seeing the tea boy/ girl/ neutral at Netflix.
WRONG. Not even the hotel booking exists, none of it does.
This week when my 'personal link' didn't go live, I was like, 'maybe they are having tech issues, maybe'. I lied to myself.
By Friday I called the Marriott - no group booking - the booking reference is a digit short :) . Friday night I was organising fraud claims with Paypal (which they paid straight out).
I kept saying 'how can anyone organise a table read for 75 bucks. Answer - never intend to do a table read :)
Craig is in the Bahamas by now. Brilliant scamming btw. lots of back and forth. That's the part I actually hate the most - bastard.
I'm still in Sydney and will start trying to wrangle back flight change moneys and new flight change costs...
The most disappointing thing is that I was really looking forward to it, good or bad... just the adventure in LA and maybe meeting some new people at the conference or hotel.
The smartest part about frauds is targeting an audience who wants it to be true. Cause you when you look back, it was way way way too good to be true.
Hope you all get your money back.
Nicola
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Update - I contested the 75 dollars that was given to Monster Pitch via Backstage -and my bank is able to contest because it is less than 60 days, but the 55 dollars is bye bye. They also have to canc...
Expand commentUpdate - I contested the 75 dollars that was given to Monster Pitch via Backstage -and my bank is able to contest because it is less than 60 days, but the 55 dollars is bye bye. They also have to cancel my card. The good news is that I am ready to rock and roll with my pilot. I was so nervous to be in front of so many executives that I went over everything with a fine-tooth comb. Let's do this Stage 32! :)
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Yes it’s about cutting your losses. My biggest thing is the non refundable flight
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Thank you for posting this. I too was scam by this which I am very disappointed this happened. I was truly looking forward to this, but then again I kinda felt this was a little sketchy when I saw this in my junk mail. Shame on this man