LA actor scammed out of nearly $5,000 by someone pretending to be well-known casting director

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Imagine being an actor trying to make it big. You answer a casting ad, hoping it's your big break, only to find out it was all a scam.

That happened to one aspiring actor in Los Angeles and according to police, it's been happening to others, as well.

"This severely affected me, my mental and emotional health. It was very difficult," said Rigo Obezo, who told Eyewitness News he's still upset and angry at how he got scammed out of thousands of dollars.

He said he initially thought it was good news when he received a job notice from who he thought was well-known casting director Jeff Hardwick. Obezo has submitted videos to him several times before.

"It was supposed to be a testimonial, a commercial for Bitcoin," he said.

The project was to take a video of himself at an ATM, withdrawing money and then depositing it into a Bitcoin account.

"They told me not to deposit it through the teller because they wanted to check the efficiency of ATMs and I said, 'That's kind of strange,' but I did it anyway, I recorded it," said Obezo.

The scammer sent him a check for $4,850 through priority mail for Obezo to deposit and use. It cleared at first but several days later, the trouble began.

"The check for nearly $5,000 bounced and it overdrew my checking account by about $5,000," said Obezo.

The real Jeff Hardwick was also stunned.

"Unbelievable. I was shocked more than anybody when I was first informed about this," said the casting director, who said he's outraged that someone is using his name and hurting his reputation.

He said the scam has happened to other actors and even has a warning posted on his website.

"It's a terrible thing and I've tried to utilize any sources I have to alert the acting community about this, using the legitimate casting websites to put out the word and everything else," said Harwick.

Obezo thinks the scammers probably obtained his email address from online websites for actors. He has since contacted police and the FBI.

Since the scam involved the Postal Service, it does become a federal offense.

Investigators took all the information and filed a report but did not offer the actor much hope.

"They said anything under $1 million we don't really take a look at. It's not considered high priority," said Obezo. "So that means more people have to be scammed, ripped off and taken advantage of before the FBI can even look at my case."

Obezo said he wants to share his story to warn other actors who might get emails like this to make sure it all legitimate before moving forward.