Modelling scams
Model agency and model portfolio scams
Facilitator scam (in: blog)
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Modelling scams
As an aspiring model, you are likely to be very young and therefore inexperienced, and you have a dream. No matter how street-wise you think you are, you are a prime target and easy victim for criminals.
Modelling scams come in many different flavours but can be categorised into three main groups:
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1. Self-named agents, media recruitment agencies and Internet modelling sites (including certain portfolio hosting sites), who promise to find you work but don't. They only pose as agencies and make their money purely by selling (often over-priced and low quality) portfolios to aspiring models. There are better ways of getting a portfolio.
More ways of making money for pretend-agencies include joining fees and annual fees. The most you get, if you are lucky, is a listing on a useless website that nobody visits.
2. Facilitators are companies that make it clear that they are not model agencies but claim that they will submit your photos and details to model agencies on their own database.
Facilitators trick you into thinking that you need a model portfolio - not so. The facilitator will then refer you to a photographer or photo studio to have a portfolio produced and, once, this is achieved, to model agencies, which charge upfront fees. Facilitator, photo studio and model agency are often one and the same, and they all want you to sign up with them for a fee.
Popular sales pitch: "We already have work for you but you first need to sign up with us and have a portfolio produced ...", which usually costs hundreds of Pounds.
3. People who claim to represent an actual photographer or agency but don't and who try to pull off an advance-fee fraud.
They all have one aim: To take as much money as they can from you without providing any services in exchange.
Don't be naïve, don't become a victim: If something sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Really!
If you feel that there is a new variation on a scam or an entirely new category, please feel free to contact me so that I can include details in my models guide.
There are many other excellent sites exposing modelling scams. Among others,
The Stage
Deep Wide
Clive Hurt's site
BBC Inside Out
Alba Models
Updates to modelling questions, including modelling scams, are published in my blog.
Legal disclaimer: The comments in my models guide are my personal opinion. My comments are only of a general nature and do not refer to any particular agency, person, organisation or party.