As bellydancers, we get the creepy requests from time to time from those who have no intention of hiring us, just want more information. Then ther eare those that are interested in dating us but not as entertainment for their event. Then we have the third kind. Requests that seem to be legitimate but are not. And they’ve gotten better as of late- it used to be easy to spot them with bad English and pronunciation and little words. These are Fake emails. So I want to give some tips on how to spot a spam baltimore bellydancer gig request and hope everyone can avoid these who may not be familiar with getting them.
Like this one I received recently:
Email 1:
Hello, My name is Jessica. I got your information online for dance classes. I’m organizing a surprise dance (like flashmob) for my daughter’s wedding, So i want you to teach the Bridesmaids choreography. Let me know if you can do this? Thanks
1st flag: Seems, ok, right? The email address is a yahoo account, matches her name. But typically if someone emails me from online, it comes through as a contact request from my website. So that was my first surprise.
2nd flag: The subtle part is the bridesmaids choreography- it isn’t written properly and there is also no mention of bellydance.
My reply: (I was suspicious so I asked for more information)
Hi Jessica,
Can you tell me when the wedding is and how long of a dance you would like? It will take at least 4-5 one hour lessons to teach the bridesmaids a dance for one song. Once I have more information then I can properly quote you.
Email 2:
Thanks for the response am only available via email or text due to my hearing problem okay. Wedding is on the 24th June. The ladies are local. There are 10 Bridesmaids(all ladies) and i want them to choreograph a song by “John Legend” titled “All of me”. I want lessons to be at your studio. I’ll prefer Tues&Thurs 11-1pm, if that’s okay with your schedule. Though the ladies are fully committed to this training, so their timing is pretty flexible. They are not professionals and have no experience in dancing. What is the total cost for 2 hour rehearsals twice a week for 3 weeks? Actually I don’t have a particular style in mind so i want you to help me choose a suitable one. I trust your judgement on that considering it being your field of expertise. I was thinking of this version https://www.youtube.co
Regard
Jessica
Annnnnd mystery solved! Definitely spam. Additional flags:
3rd flag Grammar is out of the window.
4th flag There is drama with their ability to give you more contact info- hearing issue and surgery? 5th flag and then some A private transporter? And they need your full name?
As you can see, a short reply with some questions will allow you to figure out if this is a spam request or not pretty quickly. In some cases, they will be instantly obvious but as we have become more aware, they have become more adept at hiding.
Feel free to share your own experiences below. The more we share, the more we can protect each other!