Antonio Banderas Movie’s Greek Extras Scammed by Hackers

The movie starring Hollywood actor Antonio Banderas, which is currently filming in Thessaloniki, Greece has been the target of a serious scam, according to information released over the weekend.

The film, with the working title “The Enforcer,” hired a number of local Greeks as extras to pad out scenes. However, these locals fell victim to a scam organized by unknown perpetrators, which attempted to steal the extras’ personal information by pretending to be affiliated with the movie.

Scammers take advantage of Banderas movie publicity

The scam was discovered following extended communications between the production staff and the actors affected. However, the scheme did not exclusively target those who had been successful in their quest of getting cast in the movie, as texts were also sent to Hollywood hopefuls who did not make the cut.

The unfortunate individuals who became targets for the criminals were sent texts having to do with the production on their phones, mostly from the email addresses “barracuda.themovie@gmail.com,” and “barracuda.themovie@yahoo.com.”

“Send me here your iban and the name of the bank, a photo of your ID or your passport, AMKA (social security number), AFM (identification number). If you don’t have any of these let me know,” read one of the texts sent in an attempt to defraud the film extras.

These illegal messages require the entry of personal information such as an individual’s VAT number, credit card number, etc. and are malicious. The production has announced publicly that there is no such need or request from the actors by the film for such personal information.

According to the people in charge of making the film, there has been an attempt to hack the e-mails of people working in the casting department. These hacks have been perpetuated as an attempt to intercept personal data, and for this reason all those interested in working as a supporting actor are asked to proceed using any necessary action to prevent fraud.

Filming in Thessaloniki

Greek authorities hope that the Hollywood production taking place soon in Thessaloniki will usher in a new era of filming in the northern Greek city.

The president of the National Center of Audiovisual Media and Communication (EKOME), Panos Kouanis, spoke on the Athenian-Macedonian News Agency radio station about the upcoming production on June 14.

Kouanis referred to the Banderas movie, cautioning that “Many roads will be closed for the shooting. For about a month everyone (movie stars, the crew) will be in Thessaloniki.

“And then the plan, if all goes well, is that throughout the coming months and by the end of the year more movies can film in Thessaloniki,” he continued.

The production is flying in 300 actors and crew members for the production. However, local technicians and craftsmen of all specialties will be needed on set. All in all, Kouanis claims that more than one thousand people will be involved in the filming of the new Antonio Banderas movie in Thessaloniki this summer.