Don't Fall For That Crap! Avoiding Scams

Ladies and Gentlemen, I see scams all the time. People love to have your money. Some people deserve to have your money because the bring you something of real value. The photographer who can really build your portfolio and give you great advice on the things that should be in included. The agent who gets you a job ( a real agent, more on that later), a publicist that gets your name out there and noticed, your skin and hair care person, etc.

But there are those that really want your money and will try to make you think that there is a good reason for you to give it to them. You have to think carefully about each "opportunity" and evaluate it for yourself, but here are a few scams for models that I see over and over.

The "agency" that you have to pay. Often they will send you to a "required" photographer who will often charge much higher than the local standard rates. Often I hear models complain that months and months later, they still have no images. Then the agency charges the model a large fee. Total crap. An agencies job is to collect two things and then hook them up together. When a connection happens because the agency was in the middle, the agency gets paid a commission on the modeling fee.  What does the agency collect? 1. Talent and 2. jobs or auditions.

An agency will send out several models who best fit the need expressed by someone who needs to hire. If an agency is asking you to pay them, then I don't believe that they have any paying jobs to send you to, so they have to make their money from you. Stay away.

Another scam I see are contests. I personally have not yet used a contest to promote my work, but I probably will at some point. But there are some contests that are just a big money grab. When a "contest" sends you to get and pay for photos from a single source and you have to pay their photographer to get photos to enter a contest, it is just a bag of moist brown stuff.

Another scam is an "audition". Again, where the model has to pay, there are limited numbers spots open. If it is a real audition for something that they need and are in short supply of, then a legitimate organization will go to the agencies to get talent and or will post an audition without asking those applying for a job, to pay to apply for the job. An audition is a job application.

If you have to pay to audition nude, WTC? There are so many people who will pay you to model nude that there is never a need to pay to audition nude or partly nude. For nude work, the other side, not you desperately wants nude models. GWC's (guys with camera) who's images look like crap are not people you should pay a pile of your hard earned money to be naked in front of. They should pay you. Duh!!!