Hoax Alert: Casting Otherkin for new Animal Planet tv show

[jarandhel]

A message has been posted on various otherkin mailing lists, livejournal communities, and forums. It's even shown up on FurNation at this point. The message reads:

"Hello,

I'm casting a new Animal Planet show following members of the Otherkin community. The intent of the show is to educate and explore all things Otherkin, so we are seeking authentic members of the Otherkin community only, and all Species are welcome. The series will document the lifestyle and beliefs of five individuals, while exploring through their eyes, what it means to be Otherkin in America. Those chosen to be featured on the show must be comfortable discussing their beliefs and showing their lifestyle on camera. This is a great opportunity to raise awareness and be heard.

If you are interested, or know of someone who may be, please reply to otherkincasting@gmail.com with the following info…

1) NAME
2) CITY
3) SPECIES
4) MAIN REASON FOR WANTING TO DO SHOW
5) CONTACT NUMBER
6) RECENT PHOTO

Thank you for your submission, someone from our casting team will be in touch shortly.

Casting Department

Otherkincasting@gmail.com"

 

One of the members of the otherkin livejournal community contacted them, and received a response claiming to be from Zig Zag Productions, a uk-based company which just opened offices in New York.

 

I hate to break it to folks, but this is a scam. The use of temporary addresses like otherkincasting@gmail.com and otherkincasting@yahoo.com to send and receive mail (especially multiple temporary addresses) should really be a big clue.  As should the lack of identifying information in the original post. Wouldn't a real casting department include the name of their company in such a message, not to mention an actual contact name at the company rather than a vague "Casting Department"? But the biggest clue is found in examining the headers of those messages sent to the yahoogroups. These messages originate from 75.67.26.4, which resolves to c-75-67-26-4.hsd1.ma.comcast.net, a comcast IP address in Halifax, Massachusetts. Nowhere near any offices of Zig Zag Productions.

 

Please, please do not give out personal information to these people or record any video for them. They are lying to you, and you will get burned.

 

I'd also advise against most otherkin participating in authentic media events at this time, but that's a whole different can of worms and really beside the point in this case.

Comments

[helen99]

I've seen this floating around. While I hope nobody falls for it and gets burned, I'm actually glad it's not a real offer because I'm afraid that someone would want the attention and might answer it (see your last sentence above - sentiment echoed).

[jarandhel]

An illegitimate offer may actually be worse in that regard. They've specifically asked for name, city, a contact number, a current photo, and (according to a post by one guy who responded to them) indicated that they wanted select respondents to send them 3-5 minute sample videos following a script, and questionnaires with more info. There's a lot of damage that can be done with that material, by someone with the mind to. Ranging from sending it to their families or employers, to posting it all publicly on the internet on a "look at the freaks" type of website that makes all of us look bad by association.

[(Anonymous)]

I was thinking more in terms of identity theft and subsequent draining of accounts and/or illegal activities in the victim's name, but I agree that that there could be someone vindictive enough to actually do what you describe, considering the fact that the hoax is targeted toward otherkin.

[jarandhel]

I've thought of that possibility, but given the information they've currently asked for I don't think it's likely. It depends a lot, though, on what information they ask for in that subsequent questionnaire. I can't really think of a scenario, though, where someone would logically target otherkin in particular for identity theft.

[helen99]

Right - so there must be some other reason, as you've said.

[jarandhel]

*nods* Yeah... wish there wasn't, but all signs point to them being up to no good. The absolute most positive scenario I can think of is that it's someone who's never done any work in the film industry before, trying to break into it with something edgy and unusual like otherkin, and lying his ass off about his affiliation with certain production companies and channels in an attempt to not sound like a complete amateur. But in any case, I'm 99% sure we're being lied to here. I'll be 100% sure when I hear back from Zig Zag, assuming they bother to respond.

[helen99]

Oh crumb. Forgot to log in. That was me.

[jarandhel]

That's ok... I thought so but wasn't 100% sure. :)

[waywind.livejournal.com]

Good sleuthing! I'd seen that and wondered about it. Whether it was real or fake, I didn't like the looks of it, either way. I sure hope nobody ends up falling for it.

This deserves a signal boost, so I've linked to this post on the Otherkin News blog. Please feel free to post on that news blog whenever you've got an urgent bit of information like this.

- Orion Sandstorrm

[jarandhel]

Thanks Orion. Sadly, it seems that even with this information there are people in the otherkin community who believe the casting call is legitimate (or, for some reason, want to believe it). So in an attempt to eliminate all doubt I've emailed Zig Zag Productions directly, using an email address on their website for the US branch, and asked them to confirm that this is a hoax and has no connection with them. We'll see if I actually get a response back or not...

[goldkin]

This is the same conclusion I've come to. I'll be interested in hearing what the response back is from Zig Zag, and assume you'll receive a canned denial if their email addresses are properly staffed. It would, frankly, tell us a great deal of information and serve to dispell a hoax implicating their organization.

I remain silently impressed, however, that an email carpet bomb could set off such a stir within the community. But that's a separate topic for another day.

[jarandhel]

Hopefully. So far, I've received an out of office reply. I'm not sure if I'll even get a denial from this, since we're a pretty fringe community to begin with and I'm betting there haven't been many inquiries or complaints about it to really get this situation on their radar. But maybe we'll get lucky and Ms. Freedman will want to keep anyone from improperly using her organization's name and respond on that basis.

"Impressed" isn't the word for what I feel in regard to this. I swear, lately every time I think I couldn't possibly be more disappointed in the community...

[ex_liryen455]

I've actually never seen this (or maybe I did and just forgot). How very...unsavoury.
I hope Ms. Freedman takes action *crosses fingers*. In the meantime, do you mind if I send a copy of this post to my S/O? He's not American, of course, but I think he'd probably be interested anyway.

[jarandhel]

Please, feel free to copy it to anyone, or link to it from anywhere. I'm trying to spread the word as much as I can, but I can't catch every forum this troll posts to, let alone sign up for all of them just to warn them this is a scam.

[(Anonymous)]

This message was posted on Werewolf.com, a forum that is owned by myself and my husband. I contacted Animal Planet directly from their website, asking about the validity of this casting call before allowing it to be posted on our site. This is the response I received:

"Dear Viewer,

Thank you for contacting Animal Planet.

We sincerely appreciate you taking the time to write us to verify the
Otherkin casting. Please know that this production is affiliated with
Animal Planet

Thank you for expressing your interest in our programming.

Sincerely,

Viewer Relations
Animal Planet


A reply to this message will not be answered. If you have additional
questions or comments, please go to our webform at
http://extweb.discovery.com/viewerrelations."

It seems as though this is actually REAL.

[jarandhel]

Thanks for letting us know; it seems the same email has been posted on Otherkin.com, as well as a message from Zig Zag that says they have partnered with a casting director in Los Angeles, which is why the posting originated from a gmail account instead of a Zig Zag account. While this seems to resolve the mystery somewhat, it does add another layer for me: if the casting director is in LA, why are the emails coming from Massachusetts?

It's funny you guys have all gotten replies on this already... I'm still waiting to hear back from Zig Zag myself. So far all I've gotten is Ms. Freedman's Out-of-office autoreply. I guess you must have written them before I did.

[goldkin]

... that's because the response was from viewer_relations@discovery.com. I personally know the person who received the response; the original email appears behind a locked post and has been reposted here.

I'm not enthused, nor amused, by this response. But so it goes.

[jarandhel]

Meaning no disrespect, I prefer to verify such things for myself rather than taking other's words about it. I've taken the liberty of sending off a few more emails, both to Discovery and to Zig Zag, and am awaiting responses beyond the autoreplies. Apparently Alex Stockley, your friend's contact from the first screenshot in that link, is no longer working for them. But he did leave another name that I'll try to contact if I don't hear back from either the production email or Mia Freedman.

Plus, call me a little paranoid but it hasn't escaped my notice that I've seen a high proportion (currently at least 2/3rds) of these claims of confirmation coming from Permanent members. Seeing a possible troll be confirmed as legit by members of a trolling group doesn't exactly fill me with confidence.

[jarandhel]

Well, I have heard back from Zig Zag now, and it looks like I was indeed wrong:

http://jarandhel.dreamwidth.org/341956.html