DOING BUSINESS: Nefarious Individuals Are Using the Names of Legitimate Commercial Production Companies to Steal Equipment

By: Scott Taylor, President, Taylor & Taylor Insurance

Over the Christmas holiday period, a Los Angeles-based camera equipment rental company received an email from an existing client asking whether they were open for a last-minute rental. The email came from what appeared to be a legitimate commercial production company with whom the rental house had previously done a fair amount of business.

Fortunately, the rental house needed to discuss the order further and reached out to their client using the production company email address already on file. This prompted the commercial production company to respond that they had not sent any email requesting to rent equipment.

The value of the requested equipment was in excess of $900,000.

The story has a happy ending. The rental house set up a sting operation with the police department, and the suspect was arrested when they arrived to pick up the fictitious rental.

As a result, PERG (the Production Equipment Rental Group) is exploring the use of a secure portal for members to submit equipment rental orders.  As a best practice in the meantime, AICP and PERG suggest that rental companies verbally confirm all rental orders with known individuals at the production company before releasing equipment.

If you have any questions regarding this article, please contact Denise Gilmartin, AICP’s VP Business Affairs at deniseg@aicp.com, or me at staylor@taylorinsurance.com.

This information is designed as a service to AICP Members and is intended only to provide general information on the subject covered and not as a comprehensive or exhaustive treatment of that subject, legal advice, or a legal opinion. Members are advised to consult with legal counsel and other professionals with respect to the application of the subject covered to any specific production or other factual situation. Use by a company of any of the options and provisions discussed herein are matters of individual company decision in accordance with its own business needs and nothing contained herein is intended to suggest agreement among AICP members or the adoption by the AICP of a uniform position concerning the content of this article.