After checking in and seeing the hotel was paid for, we felt a bit more at ease and had a good night's rest in hopes of capturing some great photos the next day.

At 7:30 am we awoke to Wendi calling us urgently to tell us that the driver and the transportation company refusing to work with us because we had been racist by taking photos of him. Remember how Aaron had used the word 'racist' to describe the bribe just a day earlier? Anyhow, Wendi claimed that she had no idea how to fix the situation and that perhaps we should just cancel the whole project. This is at 7:30 am in the morning on the first day of the 'project'. A bit flabbergasted and still jet lagged, we went on the defensive to try to salvage the project and promise to 'fix' the misunderstanding with the driver. This was one of her key tactics that we realized later. Attack us with strange things so we have to defend our position. Then ask for money while we're in this defensive state. It totally worked. While we were apologizing for 'offending' the driver, she casually mentioned that there would be another photography fee for the last two cities. By now our warning bell system was exhausted and we just agreed to it, fully believing we'd be reimbursed after the project was finished.

So we met the driver downstairs and he's acted like nothing was wrong. We gave him the second 'permit fee' and then he dropped us off at in the middle of Chinatown. It wasn't quite photogenic but we tried to make the most of it while wandering around on our own.

As luck would have it, we ran into a German photographer at a Chinese temple who was talking to some locals about a photo project he was on. Zory, unable to hold her curiosity in, asked him for more details and he replied that it was for Wendi Murdoch! At this point, we became friends quickly and started exchanging all the oddities and details of our project.

He had apparently been in Jakarta a day or two before us and was about to cancel the project because they kept giving him the runaround everyday when it was time to move to the next city. They'd find ways to drive him to the wrong airport or make excuses to ask for more permit charges all while threatening legal action for violating the NDA and contract. Even after all this, he was not completely sure it was a scam and neither did we, but doubt was creeping in.

We got his WhatsApp number and stayed in contact while we went our separate ways for the day.

After a full day of shooting, without any help from the driver by the way, we went back to the hotel to rest, recuperate, and investigate a bit further.

When we got back to the hotel, we had the concierge call all the hotels we had reservations with to see if they had been paid for. As the concierge called each one to find out none had been paid for yet, it started to dawn on us that this might be an elaborate scam.

A couple hours later, Aaron calls to check on us and we asked him why all the other hotels aren't paid for yet. This made him lose his mind! He went on a crazy rant about how I was 'racist' again to the driver, how I'm not in touch with my Asian side, and how cynical we've been towards Wendi about getting reimbursed. He also threatens to call Immigration to tell them we are in Indonesia doing work illegaly on a tourist visa. He then says Wendi wants to cancel the project because she can't work with us.

At this point we were still on the fence if this was a scam or not. I don't know if it's because we already had so much skin in the game but we still surprisingly wanted to continue with the project!

Anyhow - we got Aaron to calm down and then said we'd talk again the morning to discuss if this project was still viable or not.

After a sleepless night, we decided we'd hear what Aaron had to say on the call and then decide from there.

8 am - Aaron calls and he says that Wendi has decided to cancel the project, but not to worry she would reimburse all the travel costs and permit fees within 24 hours. He said to make an invoice with the bank account and routing number so they could transfer the money in. We felt an instant weight off our shoulders as the past 48 hours had been outrageously stressful.

But, I just couldn't shake off the feeling that we were getting scammed and possibly in danger. So I looked on Facebook to see if I knew anyone who lived in Jakarta. Lo and behold, one of my friends had just moved from Los Angeles to Jakarta recently and was the type of guy to just 'know things'.

I pinged him on Facebook messenger to tell him I was in a weird situation here in Jakarta and if I could call him. He gave me his WhatsApp contact info and within 10 seconds of my telling him what happened, he knew what was happening to me. He gave me a link to the Hollywood Reporter where many other people ( filmmakers, military consultants, hair stylists, etc) had been scammed with the same thing. They even had recordings of the scammer and one of them matched "Wendi's" voice exactly.

Right then and there I spent the next 3 hours calling and securing all my financial accounts to make sure nothing had been stolen. I was in full paranoia that they might have bugged our hotel room, placed video cameras, and used all my info to steal my identity. Luckily, they hadn't done any of that, most likely because they were busy scamming the next photographer on the way to Jakarta.

As of today, they are still scamming photographers and bringing them to Jakarta. I spoke to Nicole Katsianas, Director at K2 Intelligence, who’s been on the case for the past year. She said she’s spoken to at least 100 people who have been scammed by this and estimates between 5-10 times that amount have been affected by this.

Our total loss was around $7,500 USD due to the airline tickets being so expensive. And no, we never got reimbursed for anything.