Photographers, beware of this magazine photoshoot scam
May 10, 2019
Dunja Đuđić
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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Online scams are a pretty common occurrence, and many of them are aimed at photographers and other creatives. Lately, a scam has been going around targeting particularly portrait and fashion photographers. It’s pretty elaborate and it can be difficult to notice red flags, but it’s the details that will reveal that you should stay away from it.
SLR Lounge recently received an email from “Marie Claire Magazine” offering a photo shoot opportunity. The email seems pretty straightforward and there are no obvious signs of scam at the first look. But, a quick Google search can tell you more and reveal whether the email is legit. And in this case – it wasn’t.
If you have ever received an email like this, you know that it’s easy to believe that it’s real. Especially if the scammers use perfect English, a proper email address and a phone number. However, there are ways to check whether you’re targeted by scammers.
What I always do first is Google the sender’s name. If the scammer is sloppy, he or she will use the same name many times, so it will quickly pop out somewhere along with a scam warning. That’s an easy one. But what if the email comes from a renowned magazine? Well, there are a few more steps to take, just like the guys of SLR Lounge did.
First, the guys used the website Unknown Phone to search for the phone number from the email. It turned out that the people behind it are Nigerian scammers. In addition to Unknown Number (or in case there’s no phone number), you can also use whois.icann.org to check whether emails or websites are legit.
Another thing you can do is copy the text of the email and Google it. If this is a scam, you’ll likely stumble upon an article, a blog or a forum post discussing it. Scammers usually use similar wording and phrases in their emails, so you can compare them.
Photographers can get hyped about a tempting offer and easily blinded by the opportunity. And it’s perfectly normal. Sometimes it’s not even easy to discover whether the offer a scam or not. But take everything with a grain of salt and always check the background of the emails you receive. Just to be on the safe side.
[via SLR Lounge]
Dunja Đuđić
Dunja Djudjic is a multi-talented artist based in Novi Sad, Serbia. With 15 years of experience as a photographer, she specializes in capturing the beauty of nature, travel, concerts, and fine art. In addition to her photography, Dunja also expresses her creativity through writing, embroidery, and jewelry making.
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10 responses to “Photographers, beware of this magazine photoshoot scam”
Thanks for the warning. Any business or anyone offering me an gig is defiantly a scam. :-)
Clarence Hemeon just the paying ones. ;)
Just a thought: If a good solution is to Google the text of the email, why didn’t you include it in the article?
Because there are several emails going around worded slightly differently. And unless you actually receive the email, you don’t need to google it. And if you have received the email, you have the exact text you need to google. :)
I got one of these from Complex, too. That was also a scam as I verified with the company.
I once played along and actually had a check mailed to me. Of course it was bogus. I told the sender I had cashed it and was keeping all of it. They threatened to call the police on me.
I had something similar with a fake “Fader” magazine assignment. I contacted their creative director who confirmed it was a scam. I had a lot of fun playing them for a couple weeks making ridiculous requests which they always agreed to including t-shirts with their names embroidered on them for my biker crew members who were now out of jail. I did get the fake contract and cheque (email). I even told them I tried to cash the cheque but there was a problem and they agreed to send another. Eventually they gave up. The next week an “ad agency” in Singapore wanted me to shoot an international Coca Cola campaign … haha.
Why weren’t the emails posted here?
Thanks for posting this. I had a scam email from Lauren Fisher and Marie Claire that looked very believable. Thanks to you, I am not wasting my time on it.
Think this is a scam,
They respond with saying doing a photo shot for Complex Magazine.
At first kind of looked real then when they don’t respond when you ask a question other then sending an automated email, and no phone call no phone number.
Odd part is not sure yet what the scam is for just yet. They have yet to ask for money or bank info.
Just basic information thats normal for a gig.
https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/93146f4e370e380d28b47c2836161941db6fcc8f576a2a186f02cf0987a09064.png