To all the photographers who have ever worked with me

tandi I received a reported confirmation in April, no direct response apart from the wellbeing team confirming if I need support.

I didn't expect a response, more just to keep one on record to support others who report.

Don't think it would be worthy of an article haha ❤️

interesting that it was Whatsapp, either that's someone who has access to the model's whatsapp account or her number has been sim swapped.

I've heard it happen to a lot of models recently - very scary how clever these scammers or whatever they are can be :(

tandi said

Alyssa Taylor said

tandi Nothing happened when I did, but I did report it to them.

They normally respond with xx days, but you get a reported confirmation.

Failing that, it could be a news worthy story for a newspaper or TV News station if you wanted to let others know quickly?

I have to say, given this person is effectively a troll, putting one's head above the parapet in a news article about being an amateur internet model who has creeps trying to get more explicit images from others might a) make them more determined, b) make them enlist help, c) might make them engage in more direct harassment.

I daresay there are well-enough established models here who might want to take that on, but it's worth bearing in mind.

In the past people have managed to get the mobile numbers blocked by reporting them to the phone provider, but this can be difficult to work out (my own number is listed as a vodafone number in the various API databases but it's been ported away since).

In the meantime perhaps Admin would allow a sticky post in a group where we can keep track of the numbers being used. Perhaps a non-public group, though I suppose we have to assume this person is a PP member.

Anyone receiving calls or messages, when reporting to the police should maybe direct their attention to the following legislation:

An offence under section 127 CA 2003 may be committed in a number of different ways:

1. s.127(1) – an offender sends, or causes to be sent, via a public communications network a communication that is either grossly offensive, or of an indecent, obscene, or menacing character;
2. s.127(2) – for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety to another, an offender:
    
   1. sends, or causes to be sent, a communication that the offender knows to be false; or
   2. persistently makes use of a public electronic communications network

That’s a possible criminal offence for them to look at under The Communications Act 2003. If the police suggest the offence is unlikely to be made out then I’d mention they can’t determine that until they interview the person sending the messages to determine the intention or state of mind or the purpose behind the messages.

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. 

Whatsapp is more likely to be trusted than a random email, so easier to fall for  Seeing the other thread about scams via whatsapp  https://purpleport.com/group/general-chat/195136/To-all-the-photographers-who-have-ever-worked-with-me/  , I'm going to take a wild guess that it wasn't the models real phone number, and it's a scammer who has the number of a few photographers. Quite what their end goal is I don't know - photos that aren't public to make trouble for model or photographer I guess. 

Contacting the model via other channels to see if the number is genuine seems like a smart move too. 

Since it is trying to get products or services by deception it may be worth reporting  following the links there. Actually Admin might want to merge the threads.  

Unfocussed Mike said

I have to say, given this person is effectively a troll, putting one's head above the parapet in a news article about being an amateur internet model who has creeps trying to get more explicit images from others might a) make them more determined, b) make them enlist help, c) might make them engage in more direct harassment.

I daresay there are well-enough established models here who might want to take that on, but it's worth bearing in mind.

In the past people have managed to get the mobile numbers blocked by reporting them to the phone provider, but this can be difficult to work out (my own number is listed as a vodafone number in the various API databases but it's been ported away since).

In the meantime perhaps Admin would allow a sticky post in a group where we can keep track of the numbers being used. Perhaps a non-public group, though I suppose we have to assume this person is a PP member.

An internet Troll is a bully trying to offend people, I don't believe this is the same.

tandi said

An internet Troll is a bully trying to offend people, I don't believe this is the same.

Plenty of definitions of broad "troll" behaviour out there, and this would fit with some of these -- at this point they know that the models will find out about the requests and they do not care. Way before the gamers took over the term we used to call people engaging in behaviour like this "griefers". And this person is engaging in indirect harassment and offence (as well as forms of actual fraud).

Spartacusimages

- Do you have the model's original phone number?
- Was it the same number?
- Were her previous messages shown on the WhatsApp conversation?

Serious interest.
SIM swaps are geting very clever now - then they have access to the target's online banking and other stuff.

CalmNudes said

 Quite what their end goal is I don't know - photos that aren't public to make trouble for model or photographer I guess. 

It could be as simple as someone wanting photos to trade on the various fappeningblog sites (or vipergirls, which is where loads of fake model profiles have sourced images over the years), but it could also be someone wanting photos that aren't published with which to start a fake profile on a modelling site.

Either way, they know the models in question will find out, so it's harassment and maybe even a stalking offence.

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).

OriginalSin said

Anyone receiving calls or messages, when reporting to the police should maybe direct their attention to the following legislation:

An offence under section 127 CA 2003 may be committed in a number of different ways:

1. s.127(1) – an offender sends, or causes to be sent, via a public communications network a communication that is either grossly offensive, or of an indecent, obscene, or menacing character;
2. s.127(2) – for the purpose of causing annoyance, inconvenience or anxiety to another, an offender:
    
   1. sends, or causes to be sent, a communication that the offender knows to be false; or
   2. persistently makes use of a public electronic communications network

That’s a possible criminal offence for them to look at under The Communications Act 2003. If the police suggest the offence is unlikely to be made out then I’d mention they can’t determine that until they interview the person sending the messages to determine the intention or state of mind or the purpose behind the messages.

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. 

Good Point, but also...

From what I gleam from this post, someone, most likely on Purpleport sees that a model has worked with a photographer and pretends to be that model when contacting the photographer by Whatsapp in an attempt to get the photos from the model and photographers original shoot.

That would be, I believe... fraud by false representation, but also covered under the Computer Misuse Act (trying to impersonate or steal someone else's identity) max 14 years. If the person actually gets the photos, my guess is that they are not for personal use, but probably personal gain behind a Pay Per View subscription wall. Then that would be a copyright infringement too.

Has anyone tried reporting this to whatsapp and attempting to have mobile number account removed?

Edited by tandi

Edited by tandi

There are lots of scams that come through on Whatsapp.

Had one yesterday asking if I was still looking for data input work which I had looked into but nothing to do with who they pretended to be.

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 😡