Yes, genius, it’s a scam!

Model scams are all the rage. Nearly everyone who joins one of the numerous modeling websites (like Model Mayhem) gets a scam email that’s riddled with horrid grammar and spelling mistakes, but promises big money and fame… if you just deposit their $5000 check and sent $2000 of it to someone else. And without even reading those emails, I can confidently tell you: Yes, genius, it’s a scam.

It’s not that hard to find that out either. All it takes is about 10 minutes of research on a site like Model Mayhem, possibly less on Google. Mayhem has a great forum community, and in that community are some phenomenal resources, including threads that are stickied at the top, with vital information.

In Model Matters, this thread is stickied, and in that thread (which is one short post long) is THIS ONE, which is literally a guide on scams.

And then there’s the wonderful www.newmodels.com (which gives great info on the famous Nigerian Scam) is linked right at the beginning of The List of Lists. Questions Already Answered (which is stickied on top of General Mayhem).

Searching “scam” in “Model Matters” on the Plastic Puppet search brings up 9 pages of results–that’s JUST for Model Matters, not all of MM! Searching “scam” on the MM Google search brings up 5 pages. (Those searches were done Sept 17, 2008.)

And let’s not forget Roger’s thread, which does get buried in Model Matters, but it’s a great resource.

The info is there and fairly easy to find, with a minimal amount of effort. The MM forums are even available publically, so even someone without an account there can view them. Often, the more seasoned forum goers (myself included) get snarky because EVERY DAY someone doesn’t bother to do a search, and posts “is this a scam?”, sometimes even when there’s an active scam thread on the first page or two of the General, N00b or Model forums. While I’m writing this, there are 4 active scam threads in Model Martters. Insane.

It took me 10 minutes to find everything I’ve linked here (and it only took that long because I’m multi-tasking at work and eating breakfast at the same time).

And if you get a scam email, don’t respond! It shows that your email address is a valid one, and could result in your email getting sold to other scammers and spammers. Which means you will just get more bullshit in you inbox.

Protect yourself from scammers. If you have a profile on one of the numerous modeling sites, don’t list your email address! Scammers scour those sites for email addresses, and send bulk messages out in hopes they’ll net one sucker.