Story time, my friends.
As a photographer, I am always trying to challenge myself. I started photography to capture the places I was traveling for work. It quickly turned into something much more than that. It is a passion, and I am always trying to learn more. My wife can attest to the number of YouTube videos I watch trying to spark an idea about what project to try next. This attitude made me nearly fall victim to a well-played scam. Below is the saga.
It all started a few weeks back with the simple email below.
I indeed have a 500px account, and it is set up that I am open to hiring. So, I was intrigued. While fashion and street photography are not what I usually put out, I am open to a challenge and thought it would be a fun gig. A few things should have sent all my senses into overdrive, telling me that this was a fraud.
First, I didn’t see this message when I went into my 500px inbox. I don’t spend a bunch of time on the site, so I was not sure if that was normal or not.
The second thing I should have noticed was that the email was sent via sendgrid.net. My other job is as a software developer. I use SendGrid as a service to send mass emails. This service can set the return name and address to look legit. I missed that at first and responded to the message that I was interested and would like more information. I got the following message back.
While most of the message seemed, normal there were two lines that made me start to question things a bit.
“It will be greatly appreciated if you accept this offer. I will look forward to having a better service from you.”
I reached out to the model agency he wanted me to work with but also started to begin searching the web for the agency and Andrew himself. Nothing… I sent a response to “Andrew” to let him know that I had in fact reached out to the talent agency but got the following bounce back in response. Now things are getting fishy.
While most of the message seemed, normal there were two lines that made me start to question things a bit.
“It will be greatly appreciated if you accept this offer. I will look forward to having a better service from you.”
I reached out to the model agency he wanted me to work with but also started to begin searching the web for the agency and Andrew himself. Nothing… I sent a response to “Andrew” to let him know that I had in fact reached out to the talent agency but got the following bounce back in response. Now things are getting fishy.
In my research, I came across a video on All Things Photo where Jim M. Goldstein discusses a scam hitting photographers who are selling prints online. It sounds familiar to what I am seeing. It turns out, it is a derivative of the Nigerian Prince Email Scam.
Similar Photo Scam
At this point, I reach out to “Andrew” and tell him that I want to talk to his contact at complex.com to discuss the shoot. I told him I wanted to ensure that my vision for it aligns with what they are looking for. Any client paying for services would find this a normal request. There has been no response. They figured out that I had caught on to what they were doing. The moral of the story here is, be careful when someone reaches out to you. As the video above describes, Jim had a legit client that seemed to be a scam so it can happen but if it seems too good to be true, do you homework. If you have a similar story, I would love to hear about it in the comments.
