My sister - potential target of a scam

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Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:34 pm

Hey guys,

recently my sister has recieved an PM on chat site from 'modelling company' claiming that they're helding some sort of competition in our area and that she made it to the semifinals... The main prize is like 10 000€ and some trips etc.

My sister is convinced that it's completely legit, but once I've heard that, my paranoia regarding scams instatly kicked in.

I'd send the message and links, but unfortunately it's not in english...
I may try to translate the message for you later, though. At the moment I'm just about to start some research, just wanted to ask what do you guys think?

To me it looks rather strange, PM out of nothing claiming that she was picked etc. etc.

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:42 pm

Did she apply for any competition held by any modeling agency?

Has she heard of whoever contacted her (the supposed agency)?

Do they have a local address and phone number?

How do they expect her to contact them?

Do they publish photos of or articles about their competition anywhere?
Are the names of the other semifinalists listed anywhere?

Smells very much like a scam if the answer to any of the above is "no".

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

I smell s**t. How can she make it to the semi-finals if she never even entered?

Your sister has nothing to lose at the moment, as I doubt she can be held to ransom at this point even if she has given her R/L details. Pull out.

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 9:49 pm

That's the thing, they contacted her anonymously. Over PM on one chatsite.
The only thing they know about her is hers photos and username.

She didn't reply yet.

The message is very obvious script, but then again - legit companies do that as well...

On google there's not much to be found but right now I've found that they apparently charge 250€ for taking photos on the casting and 100€ for walking course... But that's just one hit stating something like that... Guess I'll have to do a bit more research

You're ability to smell shit is quite significant Craig... Rolling Eyes

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

Quote:

Over PM on one chatsite.
The only thing they know about her is hers photos and username.

If this is a perfectly generic chatsite, where the topics of chat are non-modelling related, then I'd find it a highly suspicious way of a 'legit' company approaching anyone randomly like this.

For one, a competition implies entry, which hasn't occurred. Even if an actual company with the same name exists, what's to say the senders of the PM actually represent that company?

Your sister can play along if she likes, under your guidance with your baiting know-how, until it reaches the payment stage and then back out.

I certainly wouldn't put on a lottery ticket for €250 if the jackpot was only €10,000.

Quote:

You're ability to smell shit is quite significant Craig... Rolling Eyes

I like to think so. I've not lost a penny to a scammer yet.

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:02 pm

^^^ You've made a damn good point that that certain use may not even be from said company. I totally overlooked this.

Tommorow my sister will give me access to her account, unfortunately she has already gone to bed so it's not going to be tommorow.

I'd like to look at that 'company's' profile and try to harvest as much information as possible.

Think I even may contact the company through given contact on their official site and ask them what do they know about this.

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:18 pm

^^ I agree with Craig.

What language is the script?

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:19 pm

Czech, company is slovak - czech is the country I live in, slovak is neighbouring, but we used to be joined

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

Quote:

Think I even may contact the company through given contact on their official site and ask them what do they know about this.

Seems to be the most diplomatic course of action, with the least possibility of endangering anyone. If the company have no clue about such a 'competition', then we have a new friend to bait.

If they acknowledge the competition, further verification must be sought from other sources to determine if the company itself is fraudelent or not, in light of their questionable advertising techniques. I'd get a fake site expert to look it over if the competition is confirmed.

If deemed authentic, then, and only then will I eat my hat. Very Happy

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:23 pm

Well, contact form on their site is not working.

I'm not calling them. I'll set up fake account on that site, once I get username I'll write PM asking for email.

I'll pose as her father, following safebaiting rules of course and I'll ask several question regarding payments etc.

Curios where this is going to lead me, but I'm pretty certain there's going to be whole bunch of payments involved.

EDIT: Even though you're not probably going to understand a bit here's the site. http://www.exynet.sk/ it's acutally very legit looking and that was what convinced my sister. But then again, such sites are mostly legit looking.

Baiting Guru Joined: 19 Apr 2007 Posts: 3123

Quote:

Well, contact form on their site is not working.

Bang goes the most diplomatic course of action. Laughing

The WHOIS reveals this:

Quote:

Last-update 2011-02-03
Valid-date 2012-02-06

From my brief foray into site killing, this type of one year domain is often used for fake sites.

Quote:

I'll pose as her father,

Your sister's father, or a fake character's father? It's not safe baiting if you claim to be your sister's father, even if his details are false.

Baiting Guru Joined: 10 Oct 2003 Posts: 4747

She was chosen to by a modeling agency and has to pay fees? There’s a lot information on that scam on the net.
http://www.modelingadvice.com/Scams.html

I have been contacted by agencies, mainly because they want to be the “before” picture. Laughing

Posted: Mon Feb 21, 2011 10:39 pm

Ok, more interesting details incoming
I was able to get to the message they've sent.

It wasnt in the system as regular message - it didnt come from user - it had gold background and on the very beggining it said "Commercial announcment"

The thing is - it's basically an ad, but it's worded the way it looks like it's an actual message.

Roughly translated beggining (bolding and caps by me)

Quote:

Slovak modelling agency Exynet is announcing YOU, that Czechoslovak Miss Exynet 2011 is being held and that YOU have made it to semi-final round which takes place on blah blah blah

The message clearly said they've picked the girls from two social networks (the one my sister uses was there) and - there was an email!

Even though I know exactly what's going on I'm still going to write said email.

Also, I've googled the message and on the forums some people clearly said you have to bring 15€ registraion fee. So in total it's going to be 365€ and who know how many fees are involved in later rounds (investment effect, anyone?)

@Craig: I'm not going to name, I'm going to use fake father's name and then claim that my daughter has recieved such mail.
If they ask for my daughter's name I'm either not going to tell or use made up one (but most likely I'm not going to tell)

** SUSPENDED ** Joined: 23 Feb 2011 Posts: 4

mostly internet cheater playing our feeling and create fake rule for us

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 3:43 am

How tall is your sister? Most agencies for runway (fashion) and print models require their female models to be at least 5 feet 7 inches (about 170 cm) tall.

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 10:08 am

For my 2c, the company is legit, but it sounds like they have dodgy ways of making people think they have been specially chosen. (Google Translate is your friend Very Happy

).

Required model height as given is 168 cm ... that's what, 5'6"?

I'd just ignore it (and tell your sister to do so, too). What they did is probably entirely legal ... there.

Posted: Sat Feb 26, 2011 11:37 am

The other day I was talking to my friend, and you've said basically what I did...

It's legal, but fishy... My sister has decided to ignore such 'offer' Smile