Castfishing is the latest scam, and its scarily like sextortion

When my partner, actor and writer Tom Ward-Thomas, applied for the Amazon series The Power, he was asked to send in an audition tape, commonly referred to as a "self-tape." The role called for a character to strip and perform a humiliating dance. The nudity was implied, not shown — yet the "production" wanted him to strip down for the audition.

"I did the tape, head and shoulders only, and removed my top. They loved the tape but now wanted a full-body shot and told me, 'Feel free to go all the way.' I said I was happy to go down to underwear, not naked," Ward-Thomas recalls. "I never heard from them again."

More recently, in Dec. 2025, Ward-Thomas was contacted directly, not via his agent, with another opportunity, in exchange for an "audition" requiring a 30-second clip involving full frontal nudity, which he spotted as a scam.

"I wasn't sure from the beginning whether it was above water, but when he was insisting on a naked self-tape, I realised it was not above board."

The rise of this practice, which we're coining "castfishing," has become a plague on the industry. Mashable spoke to actors and other experts about these scammers and who they're exploiting.

What is the 'castfishing' scam?

Castfishing is the offer of a big break in exchange for a nude video.

An anonymous former actor who left the industry told Mashable they've experienced more than one scam casting call with characters in sexual situations. In one experience they described, the character had a bloodthirsty and insatiable lust and spent most of the film luring others into having sex.  

"The 'self-tape' was expecting my own interpretation…and was without lines. Nudity was fine to be included! The production notes at the bottom of the treatment said 'no acting experience necessary,'" they say.  

While catfishing — pretending to be someone else online — isn't new, what's different here is the entry point, says Anna Rowe, founder of romance fraud education site Catch the Catfish and fraud centre and think tank LoveSaid. 

"Instead of romance or flirtation, offenders are exploiting ambition, authority, and the power imbalance in the creative industries. They're grooming victims under the guise of professionalism, using industry language, fake opportunities and implied expectations to normalise increasingly inappropriate requests," says Rowe.

By the time nudity is introduced, Rowe went on, the victim doesn't feel like they're being exploited, but evaluated.

"That's what makes this so dangerous," she says. "It removes the internal alarm system people usually have with sextortion, because it doesn't feel like a sexual interaction. It feels like a career opportunity, which can be rare."

Exploitative practices encouraging nudity predate the rise of the self-tape, with one Redditor sharing their own experience of a sham in-person audition requiring full nudity on tape. 

The arts have long been plagued by abuses of power, with scandals continuing to make headlines. The multiple allegations of abuse from Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein, which catapulted the #MeToo movement in 2017, are just a handful of examples.

But now that self-tapes are more common, so is castfishing.

Self-tapes are the new norm in Hollywood

There was a shift towards self-tapes that happened just before COVID, and it became a massive trend afterwards, actor and agent Lydia Piechowiak told Mashable.

"Technology has expanded opportunity, but it's also expanded opportunity for bad actors," says actor Jona Xiao, who at 12 years old first experienced a scam audition, looking for monetary gain.

The rise of self-taping democratized access, she says. Actors don't have to live in LA or New York to audition anymore, and that's powerful. But, "it's also created new vulnerabilities. It's easier than ever for someone to create a fake breakdown [summary of the project and roles], request tapes, or present themselves as legitimate without in-person accountability."

Equity, the leading British performing arts trade union, recognised a spike in complaints when surveying about self-tapes in 2020. Actors found their time exploited, auditioning and never knowing if it was watched, needing to develop their own filming skills, and often needing a scene partner. Despite this, the self-tape boom has continued, both for good and bad.

An industry standard to prevent the exploitation of actors' time and otherwise has been established, thanks to multiple organisations representing or working with actors, but the standard must be upheld. 

In 2023, a group of UK actors came together to publish their own self-tape best-practice document, hoping to regulate a practice they called "the main route to work." Speaking to Variety, the group stated, "If we're going to have self-tapes, they need to be done in a way that's transparent, regulated and fair." It's easier than ever for someone to create a fake breakdown, request tapes, or present themselves as legitimate without in-person accountability.

"Often they'll [casting directors] say, if it's a scene requiring you to be topless, 'please don't film this topless' or will say, 'please don't submit actors [who] are not comfortable with this,'" says Piechowiak from her experience as an agent. 

However, unrepresented actors may not have this level of protection, or actors may be contacted directly. 

Real-life audition scandals

Joey Gugliemelli, better known as Sherry Pie, a would-be contestant on the twelfth season of RuPaul's Drag Race, made headlines in 2020 after five young actors came forward with accusations that Gugliemelli had exploited them while posing as a casting director via e-mail.

Gugliemelli reportedly encouraged actors to remove clothing on camera, even going as far as to encourage one man to masturbate on camera, according to BuzzFeed News. The scheme was apparently in-depth and pitted actors against each other, encouraging them to strip while insinuating that other auditioners were doing the same thing. 

VH1 swiftly disqualified Sherry Pie from Drag Race after the accusations came to light, and she was mostly edited out of the season. Despite admitting to inappropriate behavior, she's still performing drag as of this year.

Another public example of castfishing is former Doctor Who actor Noel Clarke, who was accused of recording nude auditions and showing them to others in 2021, as reported by The Guardian. Clarke later lost a libel case against The Guardian, with the Court finding allegations of sexual misconduct "substantially true."

"We have, anecdotally, received several of these types of cases over the last few years," says a representative for the Revenge Porn Helpline, which supports UK adults who have been affected by intimate image abuse.

The representative told Mashable these have mainly been fake modeling opportunities, which entailed contacting women and asking for fully-clothed and nude images to "create a portfolio." Once the extorters receive this content, they blackmail the women to not share it or request more intimate content. In some circumstances, the representative says, the extorter will block the woman, leaving her concerned about what might happen. "The purpose of this is unknown," the representative says. 

"Abusers are excellent at manipulating not just their victims, but also people and institutions that should be enforcing the safety rules. Once a predator finds an environment where he or she can get away with minor infractions, the misconduct usually escalates," says Mick Grewal, a lawyer with expertise in cases of sexual abuse. He represented over 100 survivors of Larry Nassar in a $500 million settlement case against Michigan State University.

How to spot castfishing or other scams

"Your instincts are usually right. Trust yourself," recommends Grewal.

"If you believe a crime has been committed, you can contact law enforcement. A lawyer can help you navigate the justice system and discuss civil remedies like restraining orders and injunctions, invasion of privacy claims, and seeking accountability through compensation for economic and non-economic damages," Grewal continues.

Equity's self-tape guidelines (and SAG-AFTRA's in the U.S.) prohibit nudity in self-tapes, Equity's TV official Natalie Barker told Mashable. But legitimate casting processes may continue to ask for nudity. In 2022, intimacy director and actor Katrina Stelk wrote that the guidelines are a good step, but that casting directors may not be aware of them.

Multiple UK-based sources Mashable spoke to confirmed that another Equity guideline, a three-day window for self-tape return, is often not followed, even via an agent. This again represents an abuse of power by influential decision makers in the industry.

Outside of this, it can be down to the directors to ensure actors are protected.  

"Because the context is so different in a self-tape, you have to provide constructive guidance to facilitate an actor [to do] the work," says Ellie Heydon, actor and director of BBC's Outrageous.

"If we're sending off a scene, even with a kiss in, I'll usually write an accompanying note that says don't worry about the physical intimacy, or rub that bit out, and then you're not leaving it up to the actor to then interpret it," Heydon says.

Without enforcement and proper regulation, there is still a long way to go. "The industry hasn't eliminated exploitation. It's just evolved," says Xiao on bad actors focusing on self-tape auditions. 

"We would always advise members to consult our casting vetting guidelines and do due diligence — make sure it's a reputable production company/casting director; ensure nudity is required for the role; that if they do decide to send a video or images containing nudity, they do so via a secure data transfer service and that there is an explicit safeguarding policy around how the data will be kept confidential and deleted,"  says Barker.

However, until we see more regulation, especially in the age of AI, it'll take time to ensure protection against fake casting calls — and maybe even longer before it's enforced.