Those enterprising African con artists are targeting fashion models

Tropic Style Magazine has published this article today. This is Copyright Tropic Style Magazine. If you want to republish this, you need to get permission first. Last week a curious email landed in the Tropic Style Magazine email box. It was from “Mary Right.” From: Mary Right maryright001@yahoo.co.uk X-Apparently-To: Return-Path: X-YahooFilteredBulk: 41.150.86.51 (Originating IP) This traces to Cape Town, South Africa. subject: Advert Job Offer Hello, Your face has been selected for an advert job by my agency, pls show your interest by sending your reply to maryrigh002@yahoo.co.uk Regards, Mary. We were intrigued. We are used to getting spammed by your run of the mill Nigerian scammers but this was a new one on us. So we created a fictious email account along with a fake model’s name. We cannot disclose those details at this times as our team of professional models are still engaged in an email exchange with these internet fraudsters. However, we did not want to wait to publish this article as a warning. We replied to this email as our fictious model. We expressed a niave excitement and we even sent Mary Right a headshot- yes, a headshot of actress Linda Blair in her legendary role in the Excorist. We have all seen this image of her in full demonic makeup. To our surprise, we recieved a reply: Hello (name redacted) , I work with Crush Models, the profile selected was sent by a third party company. They look through sites like Facebook, MySpace and MM to identify a profile that is suitable for billboard advertising. We do not involved in erotic or topless images, also in our previous email, we made it known that our client who contracted this job to us produces international telephone cards and they will want your face to appear on their products and billboards. This is a serious offer and to demonstrate how serious we are, you will be paid for this assignment, a fresh shoot be arranged for and the photo session would hold in a photographer’s studio close to your city. Let us know if you are interested,so we can send you more information. Best regards, Mary. We replied again and offered to send her another headshot for consideration. From: Mary Right maryright002@yahoo.co.uk Subject: Advert Job Offer Details ​Hello , Thanks for getting back to us. This is an advert job, so you do not need to be a professional model to qualify for this campaign, anyone can do an advert job, provided that your face match the theme of the job. The total contract package for this Advertisement job is $30,000 or it’s equivalent in your own currency, but you are entitled to 35% of the total contract package, further payment terms and details will be discussed in subsequent emails with our admin department. We would want your face to appear in our client (Global Link International) advert campaign. The company is involved in international calling cards around UK and Europe. If you are accepted, your picture would be one of the faces for their new International calling cards and billboards. Find all details for the job below. JOB LOCATION Since we can not use the pictures from the social network website, we would need to take fresh photos. The photo shoot will be held at a rented photographer’s studio near you, so you don’t have to worry about traveling abroad, the name and address of the studio would be forwarded to you before the date of the shoot, all make up will be taken care of at the studio. You can also come along with any body of your choice on the day of the shoot, your family or personal manager. JOB DETAILS You have 4 different outfits to wear; this would be provided by our client on the day of the shoot. Note that your hair would need to be without any artificial hair colour. TYPES OF CLOTHES Casual EXPECTATIONS An advert job can be done by anybody, it all depends on if your picture match the kind of look we are searching for. Do get in touch with us if you will take the job so that we can start up from there. You would pay absolutely no commission, no personal cost to yourself. Regards. Mary. Our professional responded again by asking who gets the linion’s share of this $30,000 because it’s not the model. Hello (name redacted), Thanks for getting back to us. Yes, the remainder of the money is to organize the shoot and also to pay other crew members that will take part in the job. We would never be involved in copyright issues, this is why we make it as a duty to organize a new photo shoot for this particular campaign. More so, this is an advert campaign and you do not need to be a professional model to be picked. We can not use the pictures on the social networking sites, as we would arrange a photo session at a photographer studio near you. Please look out for further details on where and when the job will start, from our admin department. Their email address is crush.models@hot-shot.com Congratulations once again, Mary. Within five minutes, we discover that we have already been contacted by this bogus “agency”. they really think they have a sucker on the line. SHOOT/PAYMENT TERMS From: “crush models” crush.models@hot-shot.com X-Apparently-To: Return-Path: X-YahooFilteredBulk: 41.150.86.51 (Originating IP) This traces to :Cape Town, South Africa. This is what is termed a Nigerian Scam letter!!! We are happy to inform you that the photo shoot for the billboard/calling card advert is due before the end Of March 2013, the actual date will be confirmed to you in due course. The amount payable for this advert job is $30,000 (or its equivalent) because you are not registered with us you are entitled to 35% ($10,500) of the total contract amount. You will receive your payment in two separate installments. First payment that will be made out to you by the financier would be for $4,000, you are to take out ($800 being 20% of the first payment, as your part payment before the shoot) the balance is meant for Studio fees and Legal Documentation. and “Sign up fee” with us,in case of future jobs. A contract will be sent out to you via e-mail,the hard copy would be signed on the final day of shoot,the second installment payment of ($9,700 being your balance take home) would be paid to you in cash or be transferred to your bank on the shooting date immediately after the shoot to make your total salary equal to $10,500 at the end of the shoot. Crush Models members benefits include; being scouted by most of the top agencies in the world, from one place, at one time. Its just that simple. Crush Models, Scouts, backs up this claim by giving the potential model the opportunity to see which agencies/companies express an interest in them. Your portfolio is added to our agency database for 1 year. * Agencies routinely search the database to find new faces. * Agencies have access to your portfolio at anytime and can email it to clients. * Agencies can find you by location, age, height, eye color, bust & more. * Agencies can add your portfolio to their personal call back list. * Agencies can add your portfolio to a global callback list (used by all the agencies). Portfolio membership Pls, do let us know if you are okay with this payment plan, so that we can move on with further shoot details and administrative procedures. We look forward to hearing from you soon. Regards, Crush Models Managements. It becomes obvious to us that this is more than a modeling scam. This is an Identity theft scam and a Nigerian email scam. Right off those of us who write for Tropic Style and who aren’t involved in the fashion industry know this is a scam. However, when we obtain the emails from the second con man involved, we will publish an in depth article about this where we will be interviewing one of Miami’s top fashion models and fashion bloggers Annamarie Ricci who will weigh in on this matter and she will be explaining specifically why this is a scam targeting amateur models