ESTA Fraud and Theft Prevention

Almost all the manufacturers’ service centers have internal procedures for tracking their equipment. To be entered in their system, the owner of the equipment must also report the theft directly to the manufacturer: Manufacturer Contact Contact Information Angenieux Jean-Marc Bouchut jbouchut@tccus.com ARRI Frank MuellerService Manager fmueller@ARRI.com Cooke Optics, Ltd. and ZGC Patti Greene patti@zgc.com Panasonic Jim FastService Manager, LA---------------------------Prakash MistryService Manager, NJ james.fast@us.panasonic.com----------------------------------------prakash.mistry@us.panasonic.com RED   https://support.red.com/anonymous_requests/new Sony (US) Service Department sj.bpc.svc@am.sony.com Vision Research (Phantom) Service Department +1 973 696 4003support@visionresearch.com Zeiss EUKerstin StirnerCustomer Care Center / Project Specialist------------------------------------------------------AmericasRichard SchleuningSr. Director, Americas +49 7364 20-5721kerstin.stirner@zeiss.com----------------------------------------------+1 973 226 7387Mobile: +1 862 371 5705richard.schleuning@zeiss.com

In 2016 alone, a total of $8,757,818 of professional motion picture camera equipment was reported stolen. This means individuals purchasing equipment on the used market are at risk of finding themselves in possession of stolen goods. There have been several recent incidents where people found themselves in this position and had no choice but to return the equipment to the rightful owner at a significant personal loss. A person who tries to sell such equipment could be guilty of a felony. RENTAL GUARD's purpose is to make it harder to sell stolen gear, and easier to catch someone doing so. It helps catch the bad guys, but other people can sometimes get caught in the trap too. Please follow these precautions when buying equipment: Before purchasing equipment, get the serial numbers and check them on the RENTAL GUARD. This is a free industry service. Also check with the equipment manufacturer. Know the person or company you are buying equipment from and make sure they have a return policy that allows for a full return of funds, including for gear that is not as specified or turns out to be stolen. If you must deal with an unknown seller, have the gear inspected by a reputable third party service center or broker. If the seller refuses to allow this or is hesitant to provide serial numbers, you should be suspicious. If the price is too good to be true, beware. Stolen equipment makes a very bad investment. RENTAL GUARD was developed for professional rental companies. However, if an individual suffers the loss of a major piece of serial-numbered, professional equipment like a lens or camera body, he or she should report it to RENTAL GUARD immediately. This offers the best chance for recovery and forewarns potential buyers that the equipment is hot. If you run across gear that is listed as stolen, snap a picture showing the serial number. Find the item on RENTAL GUARD and click REPORT A MATCH. Equipment theft hurts everyone: it hurts camera crews, cinematographers, productions, and the equipment suppliers. It raises insurance rates. It removes hard-to-replace equipment from the market. Some rare and vintage glass is simply one of a kind and totally irreplaceable. PERG works hard to push back against theft and invites DPs, camera crews, equipment dealers, rental houses and anyone buying and selling equipment to help in this effort.

These pictures are images from security cameras captured at the time of the theft at Videofax in San Francisco on September 11, 2016.

  PERG’s core membership comprises the finest professional camera, lighting and grip rental companies across the Americas, as well as manufacturers and service companies working in the film and digital market. PERG’s mission is to be a voice for the motion picture equipment rental industry, to offer opportunities for our member companies, to facilitate networking events, and to shine a light on industry issues while focusing the collective expertise of our members to shape solutions. Join ESTA and participate in PERG initiatives and events. ESTA MEMBERSHIP APPLICATION PERG WEBSITE Some PERG pursuits: Co-hosting networking events, such as the annual AICP/PLASA Oktoberfest party in New York and Cinco de Mayo party in LA Developing the sample Terms and Conditions to address redlining of rental agreements Developing guidelines to educate customers and rental staff, such as guidelines for deletion of recorded content guarding against possible liability Hosting PERG’s annual membership meeting at NAB Uncovering insights into industry trends and norms via short member surveys Hosting fun and informative panel discussions on topics most relevant to rental houses Promoting our members at trade shows like Cine Gear Expo Developing tools to fight theft and fraud targeting our industry—RENTAL GUARD

RENTAL GUARD comprises a set of four distinct tools, each designed to fulfill a specific purpose. Here’s how they work: Reporting Missing Equipment and Sending Fraud and Theft Alerts. An alert is issued when a theft is reported. In addition to providing identifying information about the items stolen, the alert communicates to others how the theft happened. This is valuable information for anyone assessing vulnerabilities in their security and procedures. Anything that is novel or noteworthy about the way the equipment is taken is important to share. Getting the word out as widely and quickly as possible has proved the single best strategy for recovering gear. Crowd-sourcing this information exponentially increases the chances of someone discovering your stolen equipment for sale shorty after a theft. RENTAL GUARD automatically emails the missing equipment report to all subscribers—a mailing list that includes rental houses throughout the world, lens and camera service centers, equipment dealers and others. Experience has shown that equipment often does resurface almost immediately after a theft. Sometimes it is even offered for sale over the internet in the same market where it was stolen. Sometimes it has moved overseas. Either way, the missing equipment alert puts the information in the hands of other companies who are able to help. Searching the Missing Equipment Database. The RENTAL GUARD database is the central, industry-wide, international depository for stolen equipment data. It provides a simple, fast way to look up serial numbers to check if equipment has been reported stolen. The database is a valuable resource for companies and individuals when making equipment purchases, as well as for equipment brokers, equipment service centers, law enforcement, and insurance companies. Lenses and cameras eventually have to be serviced, and working with service centers has proved a successful way to identify stolen equipment. Lens technicians tend to know lenses like they know faces. They almost always know who owns a particular piece of gear. It is unusual if the ownership is questionable. In such cases they perform their due diligence. On numerous of occasions, service centers have identified stolen gear in this way. The RENTAL GUARD search function provides a fast, easy way to check if equipment has be reported stolen, and to report back to the actual owner if it has. ESTA has reached out to service centers, equipment brokerages and other places equipment resurfaces. We have asked them to receive our alerts and incorporate the information into their procedures. Nonetheless, please be sure to contact the manufacturers in addition to reporting the equipment loss here. Almost all the manufacturers’ service centers have internal procedures for tracking their equipment, however the owner of the equipment must report the theft to them directly. A list of manufacturers is provided elsewhere in this resource area. Questionable Customer Alerts. If your company evaluates a potential customer and you make the decision not to rent to them because something does not check out, send a Questionable Customer Alert. This alert enables member companies to share information easily and succinctly. Criminals who pose as producers often take a shotgun approach, targeting a number of companies with similar rental orders and using the same identities. If a customer has placed similar orders with several rental companies, it is extremely likely they are attempting to defraud those companies. The alert gives timely warning to other ESTA (and ASPEC) Members to potentially avoid a theft. It can confirm suspicions, and puts rental houses in a position to involve law enforcement. There is a tipping point where our industry ceases to be an inviting target for thieves. Each theft that is prevented or thwarted signifies a large step toward that tipping point. Helping other companies avoid theft is as important as avoiding it yourself. Anyone may issue a Questionable Customer Alert, but you must be an ESTA (or ASPEC) Member to receive them. New Customer Reference Inquiry. Get help from fellow ESTA (or ASPEC) members when evaluating new customers. This inquiry enables members to obtain independent credit references beyond those listed on the rental application. When approached by a customer coming from another part of the world, for example, they may be more difficult to verify. By posting an inquiry members are able to get answers about customers, even from a rental house in another country, often in a matter of minutes. This program has already prevented hundreds of thousands of dollars of “theft by rental” by identifying fraud schemes, preventing losses, and even providing law enforcement with the means and motivation to act. This feature is only available to ESTA (and ASPEC) Members.

The missing equipment report can be divided into four parts: Basic information — date of loss and location where the theft occurred: country, city, and state/province/county. All are required fields Details of the incident — how the equipment was stolen. The details of a theft are extremely valuable to share. Missing items — manufacturer, model/item, serial number, estimated value of the item. Additional optional fields include unique identifier and photo.  Contact information — reporting company, insurance company, police, and production company contacts (whichever are relevant). Details of the Incident ESTA collects this data for the purpose of learning about the strategies used by thieves, and to help companies better assess their physical security and procedures. Here are some examples of the kinds of things that are valuable to share. Tell us as much as you can. Specify the kind of theft: Break in to a facility Break in or theft of a vehicle Fraud (theft by rental) Provide details that could help identify the thieves. For a break-in to a facility: How did the thief gain entry (e.g. cut through the roll-up door, drove a vehicle trough the front window)? What security measures worked and which did not work or were defeated by the thieves In what ways were the thieves prepared beforehand to overcome your security (e.g. they smashed the alarm horn, defeated cameras, wore masks)? Did the thieves appear to know where targeted items were located? Can you offer advice that would help others avoid a similar break-in? For a break-in or theft of a vehicle: What type of vehicle (e.g. cube van, car)? Where was it parked? Was it inside a perimeter (for example truck backed up against a building or inside a fence) or other security around the vehicle? How was the lock defeated (e.g. cut padlock, jimmied the door lock, had a key)? Do you think the thieves knew what was inside before they opened the vehicle? For theft by Rental: What evidence did they provide that made them seem legit? Was insurance temporary or annual? What checks were made to verify the customer? With the benefit of 20/20 hindsight, is there a way the fraud could have been detected? Entering Missing Items Select “ADD . . .” to add an item. Each item on the order should be entered individually unless it is in a set (a set of prime lenses, or set of filters for example). Use the dropdown to select an equipment category. These are very broad categories, for example almost ANYTHING that goes out as part of a camera rental is considered Camera (motion). This category includes monitors, data recorders, filters, batteries, head, tripod, legs, high hat etc. The only camera-related items that do not go in this category are DSLR still cameras, and camera dollies, cranes and remote heads, which have their own categories. Manufacturer/Brand: Click on the field to bring up a list to select from. Make sure you enter the item’s maker, not the item’s name (i.e. enter ARRI, not Alexa; Vision Research, not Phantom). If the manufacturer is not among those listed, please type it into the field. The field contains predictive text so you probably just need to type in the first few letters and then select from the list that appears. Consistent names are critically important for proper search functionality. Model/Item Number: Enter the model or item name/description. If entering a prime lens set, all the lenses can be entered as one item (e.g. Master Prime Set 12mm, 16mm, 21mm, 27mm, 35mm etc.) Serial Number(s): This field is for the item’s unique manufacturer’s serial number. If you are entering a prime lens set, all the serial numbers for the set can be entered separated by commas (1234567, 2234567, 3234567, etc.). Be careful not to enter manufacturer’s product identifiers in this field, for example an AJ-HPX2700 is a type of camera, not a serial number. Estimated Total Value: Enter the estimated value of the item in U.S. dollars. When entering multiple items (such as a lens set) enter the total value for the set. Note: the software totals the order automatically. There is no place that you can enter the total value for the entire order. The value of items stolen is extremely useful for compiling data for use with insurance carriers and law enforcement. It helps PLASA draw attention to the scale of equipment theft overall. Unique Identifier (optional): Is the equipment engraved? Does it have your company's bar code labels? Is it painted a particular way? Enter whatever will help identify this equipment. Upload Photo (optional): The police find it helpful to see what the item looks like. If you have a photo you can upload it by selecting the folder icon, and navigating to the file you want to upload. Select “ADD”, to add the item to your equipment list. You’ll be able to edit the entry later if needed. You will now see the item appearing in your list. Select “ADD” again to enter the next item. Once all missing items have been imported, select “NEXT” to move to the next tab. Excel Import As an alternative to entering each item manually, you can upload your order all at once as an Excel file, however to ensure compatibility, the items must be listed exactly as shown in the template provided. Select “Download Template” Open the template file in Excel Your approach to filling in the template will vary depending on how your equipment list is formatted. We suggest the following process for copying your order into the template. Copy the item descriptions from your order into the Model/Item column (column C) on the template Copy the serial numbers into the Serial number column (column D) on the template Copy the value (if available) into the Estimated Value column (column E) on the template Enter the manufacturer or brand name for each item into column B. Consistent names are critically important for proper search functionality. The correct manufacturer/brand names are provided on the second tab of the template workbook. Please consult this list and enter the appropriate names identically in column B of the template. In column A, select the Equipment Category from the dropdown list. If all the equipment is in one category, you can copy and paste the equipment category into every row. If some items are from a different category, select the correct category from the dropdown. WARNING: Items must be assigned to an equipment category or they will not be imported into the system. Unique identifier (optional). If any of the equipment has a unique identifier, enter that information in column F. Does it have your company's bar code labels? Is it painted a particular way? Once all the information is entered correctly in the template, save the file. Select “Excel Import” (on the bottom right of the Report Missing Equipment page). Select the folder icon to navigate to the saved Excel file. Select the file to begin the import. The items will populate the list on screen. Be sure to check that all the items have been imported successfully. Once all missing items have been imported, select “NEXT” to move to the REPORTING COMPANY tab. Reporting Company The information you enter on the left side of this form will appear on the missing equipment alert and in the database. The contact you enter should be the person to whom any information about the missing equipment should be directed. Enter the name of the rental company or the company reporting the loss. Enter the contact name at that company and their phone number and email address. The items on the right side of this form are not published in the listing or in the alert. This can be a different contact person. Only ESTA will use this contact information. You must enter your email address so we can contact you. Select “NEXT” to move to the INSURANCE COMPANY tab. (You must cycle through the remaining tabs before you will be able to SUBMIT the report, even if you have no information for these tabs.) Insurance Company Enter the information indicated as applicable. Select “NEXT” to move to the POLICE tab Police Enter the information indicated if applicable. Select “NEXT” to move to the PRODUCTION COMPANY tab Production Company These fields provide a place to enter contact information for the production company, if the equipment was stolen while in the possession of a production company. When you select “SUBMIT” your list of equipment is entered into the RENTAL GUARD database, and an automatic email alert is sent to all subscribers. Before selecting SUBMIT, please check the report carefully for accuracy and completeness.