To all the photographers who have ever worked with me
OriginalSin said, 1728046369
Unfocussed Mike said
OriginalSin said
i would argue that getting someone to find and provide images of a third party is an inconvenience and would cause anxiety to a model if an unauthorised person had her images. If reporting online, cut and paste the legislation into the report.
Since the messages are often to photographers, pretending to be from models, is it not also possibly an attempt to defraud? (to gain via deception).
I think we discussed this exact issue previously. In my view, it would be difficult to put a value on individual model images so although some digital material might be considered intangible property under the Fraud Act, I think a prosecution would struggle with trying to prove a fraud involving blagging model images. The CA 2003 would probably be the most appropriate and straightforward offence to move forward. Repeated attempts might be dealt with harassment legislation. It doesn’t really matter to the victims what legislation is used. They just need to convince the police that a criminal offence is likely to have taken place and there are lines of enquiry that might identify a suspect. In this case there is a phone number. Even if not registered to the person behind the phone, there are many methods to identify them from the phone number. Once the suspect is identified and the investigation is complete, CPS would decide what offence is able to be charged.
Edited by OriginalSin
LottiiRose said, 1728046306
So over the last 3/4 days I've had 10-15 photographers reach out to me about this (I seem to be the latest target)
One had been speaking to them for over a week swapping images.
One has given their address.
One has got a 'date' with me and thinks I've been sleeping with studio owners - Multiple.
Most of them resent images after "I" lost them.
They tried to book a shoot with another for £10,000.
And some of these people know me really well!
They are trying multiple angles to grab attention but as soon as anything knowledge wise is mentioned they seem to go quiet and back off, because they've been caught! For example, they mentioned husband to one photographer who knew I wasn't married and picked them up on this and instantly got blocked.
Its the same number that Melanie has mentioned so its obviously the same, sad, lonely person doing this.
It is very scary though! Im super worried people wont see my many status' or posts about it and continue to think this is me.
Huw said, 1728046558
Spartacusimages thanks. Yep, tricky times.
I have Three and O2 sim cards in my phone.
O2 for backup and calling Switzerland (free with O2, £1.10 per minute with others).
Trouble is then people don't recognise the O2 number!
tandi said, 1728046876
Spartacusimages said
Huw sent from a different number but sent to my office phone not my private one and was not suspicious because people changed thier numbers. But I asked a question ie what was my dogs name and no reply 😡
Is it spartacus and isn't it your birthday soon :-)
tandi said, 1728047324
LottiiRose said
So over the last 3/4 days I've had 10-15 photographers reach out to me about this (I seem to be the latest target)
One had been speaking to them for over a week swapping images.
One has given their address.
One has got a 'date' with me and thinks I've been sleeping with studio owners - Multiple.
Most of them resent images after "I" lost them.
They tried to book a shoot with another for £10,000.And some of these people know me really well!
They are trying multiple angles to grab attention but as soon as anything knowledge wise is mentioned they seem to go quiet and back off, because they've been caught! For example, they mentioned husband to one photographer who knew I wasn't married and picked them up on this and instantly got blocked.
Its the same number that Melanie has mentioned so its obviously the same, sad, lonely person doing this.
It is very scary though! Im super worried people wont see my many status' or posts about it and continue to think this is me.
Not good, obviously the more people who come forward and tell people the less likely they will be scammed by them.
Let's add Defamation to the list of crimes that person is stacking up.
Have you tried getting them banned on Whatsapp?
Edited by tandi
OriginalSin said, 1728047285
Spartacusimages said
Huw sent from a different number but sent to my office phone not my private one and was not suspicious because people changed thier numbers. But I asked a question ie what was my dogs name and no reply 😡
How did they get your office number? Is it publicly available? Is it available on any of your social media accounts?
Has anyone been approached on FB or IG to buy images. Someone contacted me ages ago asking to buy images from a model I shot with a long time ago. Spoke to the model, who didn’t know him nor objected to the sale of images. Smelled a bit off so I blocked the bloke without responding. I always treat any unexpected contact by phone, email or social media as suspect until I can verify them by other means. Too many scammers around not to double check every time, especially with current AI deep fake nonsense increasing.
LottiiRose said, 1728047398
Have you tried getting them banned on Whatsapp?
I have told everyone to report it. Which i think everyone has. Its mad to think how many they have reached out to in the beginning
BigBaldTone said, 1728047771
Smacks of that nut-job Matthew Hardy, as the modus operandi is extremely similar.
Plenty of people here and elsewhere got contacted by him (including me) when he was trolling people...
tandi said, 1728048039
LottiiRose said
Have you tried getting them banned on Whatsapp?
I have told everyone to report it. Which i think everyone has. Its mad to think how many they have reached out to in the beginning
I would imagine it's a race against time to get as many images as they can before someone contacts you and then you contact everyone else to let them know the scammers are pretending to be you. If they are doing this quickly, it must mean that someone is going through your references, then visiting each photographer in turn to gleam information, how they get the photographers mobile? Must be social engineering...
Purpleport may be able to help by tracking everyone who visits your profile recently and then checked each one of your references, which then led to them viewing the photographer profile, one after another. Should be easy to track if it were me, but hard for someone who is very busy profile wise.
Whatsapp Reporting
- Open the chat with the sender you want to report.
- Tap. > More > Report.
- Tap Report.
Edited by tandi
OriginalSin said, 1728048084
BigBaldTone said
Smacks of that nut-job Matthew Hardy, as the modus operandi is extremely similar.
Plenty of people here and elsewhere got contacted by him (including me) when he was trolling people...
He got 9 years in 2022, so, even with this criminal loving government in power, I’d imagine he’s still got a couple of years to push inside.
LottiiRose said, 1728048521
OriginalSin he's in a protected wing because he's 'at risk of being attacked by other inmates' 😂
tandi said, 1728048576
OriginalSin said
BigBaldTone said
Smacks of that nut-job Matthew Hardy, as the modus operandi is extremely similar.
Plenty of people here and elsewhere got contacted by him (including me) when he was trolling people...
He got 9 years in 2022, so, even with this criminal loving government in power, I’d imagine he’s still got a couple of years to push inside.
I'm literally going to have nightmares tonight, my only question is do they have phones in prison?
OriginalSin said, 1728049003
tandi said
OriginalSin said
BigBaldTone said
Smacks of that nut-job Matthew Hardy, as the modus operandi is extremely similar.
Plenty of people here and elsewhere got contacted by him (including me) when he was trolling people...
He got 9 years in 2022, so, even with this criminal loving government in power, I’d imagine he’s still got a couple of years to push inside.
I'm literally going to have nightmares tonight, my only question is do they have phones in prison?
They do but he’s unlikely to have the ‘juice’ or the unsupervised time to get one and use it to contact 15 photographers to collect photos. It might not be either a photographer, a male or someone on Purpleport. Lots of FB groups draw in the weirdos. I think you can sleep easy.
Alyssa Taylor said, 1728049657
I know they are definitely on PurplePort. When it happened for myself, they used images that were set as members only. Unless they were leaked images that I wasn't aware of, they would've had to be a member to view them, it's just part the industry, I wouldn't worry ❤️