Modelling agency - scam or real?

Pretty well every time this issue comes up, the answer is "scam".

Thankyou everyone, I won't be taking up their "generous offer." They were definitely using high pressure sales techniques and were very pushy whilst trying to book me in for a test shoot (bear in mind I do not even live in London). I appreciate everyone's advice.

TheFuntographer said

Another scam (on Facebook) is there is a competition for a boudoir photoshoot. Guess what - you win. You do get the photo shoot; the photos are quite good - but you then have to pay (quite a lot) to get the images. To me, it seems those with a 'poor' body image get sucked into this

There's a ****load of money in other people's insecurities, eh.

That Daily Mirror article is really good; I wish I'd seen it sooner.

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Reading the The Mirror article was similar to my experience as a photographer. 

I was contacted by "a model agency" to sit on a panel of experts at Pineapple Studios in London. I was paid and I guess I was a bit naive at the time. I arrived and there were a large queue of "models" waiting to get into the studio. I was introduced to the two directors of the company, and sat at a table. These models would come up to the table and present their portfolio to the panel of experts. Looking at the people in the room who turned up clutching their portfolios made me question if they had any potential as a model, after looking at the 4th portfolio I realised what was happening, told the two directors that they should be ashamed of themselves, told a few "models" that this whole set up was a scam and walked out. 

Every "model" and there must have been over 60, all had the same portfolio case, the photos were all shot in the same studio, same props, lighting etc. I asked a couple of "models" how much they had paid and it was £100 per photo and they had to have a minimum of 12 photos in their portfolio.  

Laurella Rose said

Heya, so a golden rule for agencies is if they mention ANYTHING about joining fees then yes, they're a scam. I think some take digitals almost right away for you to basically set up a little port if they immediately wanna hire you, but I know the latter is for certain.

I think this used to be the case BUT I know of a fair few highly reputable agencies which charge an annual fee of around £150 for being on their books - including one who has Warner Bros among their clients.

There are still plenty of scam agencies who will try to charge you 4 figures for a portfolio with the promise of work which never appears.

Simon Carter said

There are still plenty of scam agencies who will try to charge you 4 figures for a portfolio with the promise of work which never appears.

The remarkable thing in the UK is -- once you start reading up on them -- how many of these scam agencies are linked, ultimately, to one single operation (that is mentioned in that Daily Mirror article). All of that manipulative toxicity traces back to a small team of people and a couple of controlling interests. Below them is a network of people who appear to have varying levels of ability to delude themselves into thinking they are not fraudsters.

I find _that_ mindset interesting. How do people sleep?

Recently I was tormented for weeks by a robocall scam thing (solar panel eligibility) and then by another one -- a home insulation scam that appears to have a more complex robocall mechanism operated by someone who is pushing buttons to play different recorded sequences (one of those ones that lets them wait until you answer and then, I guess, choose different sequences depending on the kind of voice that answers? man/woman, younger/older, whatever).

I loathe these things; they made my dad's life a misery.

I was finally pushed to my limit after three calls in a day from the same scam operation, so realising that someone was actually listening and running the recordings, I shouted obscenities down the phone line, and then I briefly heard someone make an "oh" noise and the call was abruptly disconnected.

Weirdly, that operation has never called me back again.

So I actually offended a robocall operator, and they appear to have decided that nobody at their end should have to put up with that sort of language! I am a very polite person in real life and I am slightly ashamed at this accolade. But I guess even scam workplaces have limits on what staff should have to deal with. Perhaps they don't really view what they individually do as fraud.

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Unfocussed Mike there are some 'agencies' who do gets bits of occasional work for models (more by chance than marketing) but still pull a bit of a stroke with it all. I've no intention of naming because they are as close the realms of legit that it would be borderline. The model is required to update with a paid for shoot every year, the images aren't that good and are not the typical card/profile images.

Unfocussed Mike said

 

The remarkable thing in the UK is -- once you start reading up on them -- how many of these scam agencies are linked, ultimately, to one single operation (that is mentioned in that Daily Mirror article). All of that manipulative toxicity traces back to a small team of people and a couple of controlling interests. Below them is a network of people who appear to have varying levels of ability to delude themselves into thinking they are not fraudsters.

I find _that_ mindset interesting. How do people sleep?

Recently I was tormented for weeks by a robocall scam thing (solar panel eligibility) and then by another one -- a home insulation scam that appears to have a more complex robocall mechanism operated by someone who is pushing buttons to play different recorded sequences (one of those ones that lets them wait until you answer and then, I guess, choose different sequences depending on the kind of voice that answers? man/woman, younger/older, whatever).

I loathe these things; they made my dad's life a misery.

I was finally pushed to my limit after three calls in a day from the same scam operation, so realising that someone was actually listening and running the recordings, I shouted obscenities down the phone line, and then I briefly heard someone make an "oh" noise and the call was abruptly disconnected.

Weirdly, that operation has never called me back again.

So I actually offended a robocall operator, and they appear to have decided that nobody at their end should have to put up with that sort of language! I am a very polite person in real life and I am slightly ashamed at this accolade. But I guess even scam workplaces have limits on what staff should have to deal with. Perhaps they don't really view what they individually do as fraud.

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

My mother was getting the same, I bought her a phone that had a screening filter built into it, the phone doesn't ring if the number is not on a whitelist and then they need to announce themselves or leave a message.  They don't! so she has literally never been bothered since.

not to say this isn't a fake agency because it more than likely is but just wanted to add that A1 and some of the other top tier agencies do actually charge for port work now but they take a percentage from future work just as many agencies are now charging large amounts to allow children to walk in london , cannes or new york fashion weeks. the fashion industry has been raped by these new (disposable fashion brands) Shien, Temu, asus etc as well as covid took its toll also but needless to say branded fashion is in big trouble. 

Agencies themselves are now getting competition from dedicated in house studios and even Ai modelling agencies. the industry is in a very unstable place at precent and there is no set rules for how each part will behave as they are all desperately trying to squeeze the remaining money out of the industry.

Allesandro B said

My mother was getting the same, I bought her a phone that had a screening filter built into it, the phone doesn't ring if the number is not on a whitelist and then they need to announce themselves or leave a message.  They don't! so she has literally never been bothered since.

Yeah, we got one of those for him but he could never really understand the announcement/filter process. It definitely cut off a few much nastier scammers who were wisely allergic to being recorded though, so it paid for itself.

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Retouchguy said

the fashion industry has been raped by these new (disposable fashion brands)

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/stop-saying-rape-out-of-context_b_5155173

Unfocussed Mike my appolagies I actually ment to type ravaged but in the context I don’t think it’s really unacceptable, we often read how humans “rape the land” the word itself is not in dictionary solely for that one human description and it’s the context that matters.

https://www.nature.com/articles/144647a0

The word “rape” is derived from the Latin rapere, meaning “to steal, seize, or carry away.”

Edited by Retouchguy

Retouchguy said

Unfocussed Mike my appolagies I actually ment to type ravaged but in the context I don’t think it’s really unacceptable, we often read how humans “rape the land” the word itself is not in dictionary solely for that one human description and it’s the context that matters.

https://www.nature.com/articles/144647a0

The word “rape” is derived from the Latin rapere, meaning “to steal, seize, or carry away.”

Edited by Retouchguy

I don't really have much to add beyond the content of the link I posted (because it's not my experience) but I would definitely go with something like ravaged in future.

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Basic rule of "model agencies", if you wonder if they are a scam, they probably are. 

Any real agency makes its money - and sometimes a great deal of money - by taking a percentage of the fees the talent earns doing real work for real clients. 

Telling something they need to pay for one thing to receive something else of value (which of course never materializes) is the root of a great many con-tricks and getting would-be models to pay for x,y or z to get (non-existent) work is a scam that's been around almost as long as there have been models.  

Unfocussed Mike said

Retouchguy said

Unfocussed Mike my appolagies I actually ment to type ravaged but in the context I don’t think it’s really unacceptable, we often read how humans “rape the land” the word itself is not in dictionary solely for that one human description and it’s the context that matters.

https://www.nature.com/articles/144647a0

The word “rape” is derived from the Latin rapere, meaning “to steal, seize, or carry away.”

Edited by Retouchguy

I don't really have much to add beyond the content of the link I posted (because it's not my experience) but I would definitely go with something like ravaged in future.

Edited by Unfocussed Mike

Is there an alarm that goes off somewhere if i post a reply to anything ? just curious