“Welcome to my ‘ignore’ list.”
I’m honored.
First of all, if the government wants the drill to be a secret, then why post the ad on Craigslist?
Next, most large scale drills, unless they are conducted on a military base or a secluded area, are announced in advance so as not to freak out the public. Here in central PA, when TMI conducts a mock disaster drills or tests their emergency sirens, which they do fairly regularly; it is announced in advance on the local news and in the newspapers. The last thing that they want to happen is have the 911 system flooded with frantic calls when it is just a drill.
Next, the ad asks for “crisis actors” but then says that no experience is needed. There is such a thing as a professional “crisis actor” but it isn’t as nefarious as it sounds and experience for a true “crisis actor” is required. These are trained professional actors whose specialty is convincingly acting like they have been injured or are reacting as most people would during a disaster or some other type of “crisis”, a mass casualty event, a terror attack or even a hurricane or tornado for instance.
From what I understand they are very helpful in training LEO’s and first responders, National Guard medics, etc., more so than just somebody, an untrained volunteer who is told to lie down here with this piece of red tape on you that says “broken arm” and “pretend” you are injured. And as Lurker pointed out, even untrained “actors”, even kids participating in these sorts of drills are coached on how to act and convincingly made up to look the part. And I find it rather suspicious that some unnamed government agency or “government contractor” would openly advertize for “crisis actors” on Craigslist. To me that sounds more like some foreigner placing a bogus ad or some nut job trying to out some conspiracy that doesn’t exist except for only in his head.
Similarly there are also actors and companies that specialize in making those “Safety Training” videos I often have to watch working in HR for a manufacturing company. Some of them are god awful, badly acted and some are entertaining, but the ones that make a lasting impression are the ones that are gory and realistically portrayed.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB86FZnjKTw
And believe it or not, that Seinfeld episode where Cramer and his buddy compete with each other over who is going to portray Gonorrhea or some other disease for the medical school students to diagnose is not complete fiction. These are also professional actors who take the time to learn how to realistically portray the symptoms of various sorts of medical conditions that an ER doctor might encounter in real life along with the subtlety of not making it, the diagnosis obvious.
http://www.backstage.com/news/for-actors-pretending-to-be-sick-can-pay-off/
And speaking of training, I was talking to our EHS admin last week and she told me that she recently volunteered to participate in a training exercise for new PA State Troopers on DUI training. She was asked to participate by a local cop who is her friend and her next door neighbor. They don’t place public ads for this but depend on the family and friends of local LEO’s for their pool of participants. She and the other participants; men and women of various weights and ages were given tests at the beginning and then were given drinks at various levels of alcohol content and some were given no alcohol as the control group, all over the course of several hours and the PA Troopers in training administered various tests as they would if pulling over a driver under suspicion of a DUI and administered breathalyzer tests. She told me that she is not much of a drinker and got completely snookered, was laughing and slurring her words and couldn’t pass any of the tests after only two drinks. On the other hand one of the guys in the volunteer group was given a lot more to drink and did fine on the road side tests but his BAC breathalyzer test scored much higher than hers. They were then given a meal and were not allowed to leave until their BAC was below the legal limit or they had a sober designated driver to drive them home. Her daughter also volunteered and was given less alcohol than her mom but ended up throwing up and nearly passing out and even after eating and lying down for an hour, still had a BAC too high to legally drive. She said it was really informative to her and the Troopers in training as to how people react differently.
But getting back to the Craigslist ad, a fairly high percentage of all job ads on Craigslist are scams (as are a lot of others, particularly ads for houses for rent that sound too good to be true). A high percentage of everything posted on Craiglist is either a scam or a way for scammers to scam you if you post something for sale. Be forewarned!
What happens is a job is posted and it could sound on the surface like a legitimate job or job for a temporary gig like this one where you could make $200, not needing any experience for basically doing nothing but just showing up. The hiring company is never named in the ad (a big red flag) and the contact is often made via a cell phone number or to a generic email account like a gmail or yahoo account.
What happens when people respond to these ads is that they are told one or more of several things; they are asked to pay up front for a background check which will be later reimbursed to them and or they are asked to provide an SSN and DOB. Or they are told to complete an I-9 along with the required docs and or W-4 and scan and email them back to them, often to a gmail or yahoo email address, not a legitimate company email.
And or they are told they will be paid via a direct deposit or wire transfer and they ask for the applicant’s bank routing number and account number to ensure they will be paid on time.
In all of these cases, there is no job but the job seeker’s identity is stolen.
Or they are told they will receive a check up front to purchase “supplies” or pay for training or some such other upfront costs which is often more than the amount needed and then they are told to send them back the difference in a personal check or make it via a Western Union transfer. The check the job seeker gets is bogus, often drawn on a foreign or fake account but it might take a week or more for the recipient’s bank to catch on, in the mean time the job seeker has sent the scammer money out of their own account that clears long before the bogus check they deposited is discovered and they are left holding the bag.
I smell a scam more than I do a “false flag” considering these same or nearly identical ads have popped up on Craigslist all over the country.