Hello, my name is Luca and my band was a victim of this scam. I was approached by Maria de la Paz Barbirotto, she offered us a 6-month management, PR and Booking deal; we signed the 600 € contract in June 2019, and she disappeared in July 2019; then in September 2019 we got an e-mail from her (fake?) colleague Clara telling us she was sick and we would get a reimbursement. Then they disappeared again and we have not been able to reach them again since then. All the e-mail addresses, phone numbers, instagram handles and social media contacts were erased and we are still waiting for our reimbursement.
Hey there, I fell into this too. she lives in the la area so i even met her in person right around the capital records building where she claimed to do consulting, paid the money for far out entertainment and then worked my [censored] off to finish my second LP. deadlines started to be missed and she dropped off the face of the earth around october. said she was going through family issues and put me in contact with another person “clara michetti” from the agency. I asked this new person what I should expect going forward and for her physical address, number and all that in order to get an understanding of who this was. nothing. so, my aunt is a lawyer here in la. in december there was still no word for two months and after 4 months which had periods of daily phone calls, text messages and emails; I threatened suit. instant response about sickness and sorry and we will work it out. after more ignored emails eventually i sent info to every email facebook whatever i could find and in january she sent a contract for termination that was all based in italy and other bs according to my aunt so my aunt revised the termination. she went at her hard about physical addresses, business addresses, name and location of her lawyer in italy, current phone numbers, all current emails basically everything that her client should know but that she was hiding. the next day without signing the contract or giving the information she reimbursed me in full.
even when we met in person she seemed like such a contemporary. we vibed on music we both liked and what we would be going for in the future. she was very accommodating and attentive before the contract and then instant silence after. its wild.
Victim Location 90026
Total money lost $600
Type of a scam Employment
Maria de la Paz Barbirotto contacted us through Instagram and offered her services as Artist Management and PR. She said she had worked with Capitol Records and we did some research and her story checked out. She asked for $600 for a 6 month Artist Management and PR term, we signed the agreement and started working together. It seemed to work fine for the first month but suddenly she stopped replying to our emails and calls. She emailed back after a month from us not hearing back from her and said she had had a family emergency. We understood, but she was still not replying to our emails after that. After a couple of months, we finally sent her a letter of termination of the agreement and requested a full refund, as it was established in the agreement. Days after, she replied and said she was going to need more time to give our money back. She never replies our emails anymore and doesn’t seem to have any intention of returning our money. We don’t want this scammer to scam more artists, so we wanted to put the word out there for artists to not work with Maria de la Paz Barbirotto, Hoola Hop Agency or Far Out Entertainment, her new company, as they are a sham.