Chaya Phally wrote:
Did a scammer(s) contact you through MM? If so, report them to MM as soon as possible. MM hates scammers. Thanks!

Cheers. I was just looking around on how to report them because I couldn't see it anywhere.

Selena Carter wrote:

Cheers. I was just looking around on how to report them because I couldn't see it anywhere.

Hehe. It's on Info page at the top right corner.

Selena Carter wrote:
Yeah I've read through loads of them and I generally already knew what they were saying.

I've been in and out of modelling for almost 5 years now (never really had the drive to do much till now) so I keep my eyes and ears open to what's been going on.

I mainly put this up because I wanted to warn people that aren't as world aware as I am.

Yeah, we are working on something that will show scam messages we received via recent reports. It would be easier for people to search scam messages.

Selena Carter wrote:
I just went on that guys profile again and his locatin has changed. Obviously he must of messaged someone else and has changed it to make them think he's near them.

It's just disgusting.

Ugh. One of MM Administrators will remove this profile once he gets up.

britpainter-modelling wrote:
Wow, way to be on top of this!  Thanks.  There was just a BBC article this morning about cyber crime in the US, the numbers were staggering.

No problem I just don't want people falling for this. I hate what some of these people get away with.

I'm not suprised. The internet is the easiest way to scam people out of money.

Selena Carter wrote:
Hey people I know I'm a newbie myself but I have common sense. I'm not looking for a load of trolls going "Don't be stupid. It's a f*cking scam! You idiot!" I happen to know through my own intelligence it's a scam thank you very much although nothing can stop you from chipping in your 2 cents.

I am putting this message up because I searched the forums and couldn't find this scam in them and I wanted to warn people.

This is a message I got today into my inbox here on MM.

"Hello Mate,

There is a fashion catalog shoot,and we want to hire models,I've a client who wants to  update

her Catalog. and I'm interested in you for  the shooting as your personality fits what me and

my client wants.After reading through your profile and i guess you must have the below

requirements.

Very Attractive
Classy
Well spoken
Must be Reliable

All photo shoots for the event would include, shoot with the cars, shoot with motorcycles and

with music artist which would all be  about 12 different Fashion outfits put-together.

Regarding the Wage aspect, you will be paid the sum of 1200 pounds and I hope you will make

this  photo shoot a great one through commitment and diligence..

P:S: For more information please contact Toby Mcgowan by email. ( [email protected] )

and not here please."

Things that should set off alarm bells to anyone.

1. "Hello Mate"?! What the hell? Not how you start a serious business proposition.

2. Weird spaces dotted around the email in the middle of scentences.

3. Poor grammar/too informal wording. "I've a client."

4. "After reading through your profile and i guess you must have the below requirements.

Very Attractive
Classy
Well spoken
Must be Reliable"

I don't know what I should be pointing out but that just doesn't add up. (sorry not too helpful but if you read through it I'm sure you'll see what I mean.)

5. "Regarding the Wage aspect, you will be paid the sum of 1200 pounds" No matter how good you may think you are, if your a newbie it is highly unlikely that someone will hire you for a job this well paid. Hell even if you have a lot of experience it's still very unlikely to earn this much from a shoot like this.

6. "For more information please contact Toby Mcgowan by email. ( [email protected] )and not here please. Woah! This is a major no no for me. If you do not want to discuss things on here then why did you message me and start it off in the first place??? It just oozes suspicious.

If I've missed anything, anyone else can point out please post it here. These points were just the main things I thought would be worth mentioning.

Be careful out there people.

*Edit* Also with that last point the email address was a different name to the profile it was sent from. Definitely not legit!

IMS Photos wrote:
Thanks, I found it interesting ... having a boring day today so just looking at somethings. It got me looking at other scams mentined here where it looks like they then try to get you to forward some of your money for MUA or Wardrobe.
Some might be fooled so good of you to highlight it to newcomers.

Yeah it is really weird what they get people to do. I just don't get how people would think giving money back to someone was the right thing to do. It's kinda common sense. If you worked at a shop your boss wouldn't pay you for the rest of the staff as well then ask for it back so he could pay them... Just doesn't make any sense.

But it's horrible how some people are caught out by stuff like that and who knows how many people could have fallen for it already?

Just best to  catch them and stop them as soon as you can. Only problem is that there's hundreds of them out there and it's impossible to stop them all.

IMS Photos wrote:
Thanks, I found it interesting ... having a boring day today so just looking at somethings. It got me looking at other scams mentined here where it looks like they then try to get you to forward some of your money for MUA or Wardrobe.
Some might be fooled so good of you to highlight it to newcomers.

Yeah it is really weird what they get people to do. I just don't get how people would think giving money back to someone was the right thing to do. It's kinda common sense. If you worked at a shop your boss wouldn't pay you for the rest of the staff as well then ask for it back so he could pay them... Just doesn't make any sense.

But it's horrible how some people are caught out by stuff like that and who knows how many people could have fallen for it already?

Just best to  catch them and stop them as soon as you can. Only problem is that there's hundreds of them out there and it's impossible to stop them all.

Becca xx wrote:
I get the same email about 5 times a day from different people! Bloody ridiculous! x

I'm lucky that's the 1st one I've had since I've been on this site. It is! They just hope they're gonna catch you out at one point since so many other people fall for it. The best we can do is constantly let the newbies know about it and hope it slowly drops the number of people that fall for it so there's less of them going around.

It's a never ending impossible task. What really got me about this guy was that he changed his location on his profile shortly after I got his message the cheek of it!

Read this and share this information:
Is it a scam?

And then this:
www.newmodels.com/Nigeria.html
http://www.newmodels.com/bogus.html
http://www.newmodels.com/myths.html

After you read THAT page, read the entire site.  Scams are aimed at people who have NO idea how the business really works.  If you understand the business, you can spot the scams. 

You need to understand that it DOES NOT MATTER if the site the linked to is legit, or it's a real company name, the people who send these scams link to legit companies or use their names ALL THE TIME.

PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE do NOT post the entire content of any scam you receive, that actually does MORE HARM THAN GOOD.

Instead if people ask if something is a scam share THIS information.  Education is FAR more productive than posting something they'll only re-word in a week.

People often receive these because they put their e-mails in their profiles.  This's a big no-no, scammers use programs to search for them & share/sell lists of e-mails to one another.  Keep your e-mail private, people who're on the site will contact you thru the messaging system & ASK for it.

If you received the message thru MM's messaging system then you need to report it so the scammer can be kicked off the site, please go here:
https://www.modelmayhem.com/contactamod.php
and report it.

Marco AM wrote:
I'm kind of tempted to reply just to see what its all about, but its probably better to not get involved with them.

Replying will let them know you have an active email account, and will likely result in your email being sold to other scammers and spammers.  If you received the message in your inbox, that is, versus your MM PM box.

It also lets them know that you're a bit gullible.

Read the info SLE posted, especially the part on how to report messages you get to your PMs here on MM.

Marco AM wrote:
I'm glad I've found this post, I got exactly the same message and wasn't too sure about it as not only it sounds way too good, it also doesnt mention the company/studio you would do it for, and most strangely he is located in the United States, when I live in a small city in the UK!

As I was not too sure about it i decided to google the email they gave me to see if there was something related to it and I found this post !

I'm kind of tempted to reply just to see what its all about, but its probably better to not get involved with them.

Don't. Replying, especially by email, confirms you are a real person & marks you as gullible. These scammers share names & emails, talking to them opens you to a flood of more. Read the info links I posted instead.

SLE Photography wrote:

Don't. Replying, especially by email, confirms you are a real person & marks you as gullible. These scammers share names & emails, talking to them opens you to a flood of more. Read the info links I posted instead.

Ok thanks for letting me know! can I report it even though i cannot really "prove" thats its a scamm?

Marco AM wrote:
Ok thanks for letting me know! can I report it even though i cannot really "prove" thats its a scamm?

If you got in through MM's PM system, you can report it to the moderators. 

Again, read the info SLE posted above... he also guides you to a few articles that will help you see how we all know it's a scam.

Rachel Jay wrote:
...and will likely result in your email being sold to other scammers and spammers.

SLE Photography wrote:
...These scammers share names & emails,

that's pretty much old school, sans those working under a single umbrella in different parts of the world.  plus it would be like mcdonalds sharing it's secret sauce recipe with other burger joints.  it costs time, money and having expertise which isn't handed out freely to other spam competitors.

the methods of culling are many, most notably through using address dictionaries, exploitation of p2p networks, opt in requests for information from various web sites and specialized software pulling from facebook and myspace pages to name a few.

Rachel Jay wrote:

If you got in through MM's PM system, you can report it to the moderators. 

Again, read the info SLE posted above... he also guides you to a few articles that will help you see how we all know it's a scam.

The articles are actually quite good! however, is that enough evidence to be able to report it? I did get the message through this website.

Chaya Phally wrote:
Did a scammer(s) contact you through MM? If so, report them to MM as soon as possible. MM hates scammers. Thanks!

Read people!! Right near the start the OP said "This is a message I got today into my inbox here on MM."

La Little Girl wrote:
Wow, I hate scams and would not like to be a victim of one. I received various e-mails like that, and was wondering if the people were related since the messages were similar.

I'm really getting the vibe that there are so much scam in the modeling industry, it's quite tiring, however one must always be on their toes.

I'm not sure how this industry works, do people usually say they'll pay you in payments and pay you a certain amount first and what not?

Now, I was recently contacted by someone who referred me to contact these people who are somewhat an agency. They put you in contact with fashion designers. Anyway, they got back to me explaining details about the shoot, saying they'll be many outfits and done in front of cars and morotcylces. Also that I'd be payed in installments. And I would receive the first payment soon. All I'd have to do is give them my info.

I can't tell if this is a scam or not. These people didn't contact me directly. Someone here advised me to direct them because I had "the look". So can anyone tell me if this is a scam or what the harm is in committing to something like this? Also they mentioned I could bring someone, so that does bring me comfort.

Thanks ya'll!!

Yes, that's a scam.  Read the links I posted.

Marco AM wrote:

The articles are actually quite good! however, is that enough evidence to be able to report it? I did get the message through this website.

Yes.  Report it & the mods will deal with it.

SLE Photography wrote:
Yes.  Report it & the mods will deal with it.

Yes, we eat scammers for lunch

JoJo
MM Moderator