faithmarie

Hi,

Thank you starzine for the response and the advice. What I'm trying to say is simply that it is not as clear cut and easy to always identify a scam. I've been modling for almost two years now and have learned a lot about do's and don'ts. It isn't true that having to pay money is always a scam. I pay for my onemodelplace subscription and because of them I was able to get into the business from a casting they had posted that no one else had. I haven't seen as many good castings as I use to on their site, but it's always up to the individual as tp whetehr they decide to pay for a subscription to any of those sites. Of course you need to try your best to find info on the site to make sure it's legit. Unfortunately at the time I subscribed to impact, there wasn't any complaints on them, so I gave it a chance, and figured if I didn't like them I would just cancel my subscription, I never paid them for pics or services because I knew better. They can sometimes be a great source, so can modelmayhem and solomodels, depending on where you live. Sometimes even if companies do pay for your airfare and accomadations they can be a scam. I had an agency based in london offer me a gig in france for an event. I looked up all I could on the company, which was very hard because they were overseas. The event was legit and what they supposedly were hiring for was a legit gig. They sent me the plane tickets. I called the airline they were real, and the hotel booking was real. I still had a bad feeling though and decided to try and contact the event coordinators to find out about the agency, they event coordinators never contacted me back. A day later I saw a story on tv about models being kidnapped overseas and put into the blackmarket sex trade. The US Govt has no jurisdiction so the models are helpless. I'll never know for sure if this was the case, but it wasn't worth taking the chance to me. The people that do this have no problem putting the money up front to get you in, even sometimes a bonus amount or a cut. Conventionally if their paying you they must be legit right? No, they will spend the money because thy stand to make way more from you once they can ship you out to whatever country blonds are a highly priced in Japan, African americans, latinos are priced in Russia. This an extreme case. So my point is to be super careful. You might take all the precautions that you're normally told to take and still get burned, so you have to be even more on guard, especially if it is a foreign place you have no connections in. You can get some awesome jobs overseas but should always remember that when deciding on a gig it isn't always clear cut black and white on whether it's a scam, but there are shades of gray as well. This isn't speaking to a vet model as much as a beginner who moght not know. I've never paid for pics either and only do tfp's when they provide the stylists, and makeup so I can assure that the pics come out perfectly and nobody has had their time wasted. Especially when your just starting out tfp's can be a great source when you don't have thousands of dollars to spend on a majorly well known photographer. You can go to the mall and get some cosmetic counteers to do your makeup for free just to get a jumpstart on getting something to get your portfolio. I've gotten a good deal of work considering my size 5'0. I personally don't have interest in glamour, and like more commercial or runway. So I've really had to work it to prove that none of that mattered. It's different for smaller models, especially when you don't fit in any of the standards. By most super major agency standards 5'0 to short for petite which industry standard is 5'2, 5'0 is good for glamour, nude, or promotional work. If you aren't looking for those categories you have to go the extra mile to sell yourself, because for the most part your being told no, before you even step foot in the door. So just be careful, keep your head up, and try to keep your money in your pocket.

Hey Faith,

I have some expereince with the illegal scams that can lead to slavery. A friend of mine and myself were almost suckered into one. I was to be her escort to London and mostly likely she would have been kidnapped even with me as an escort. Scary stuff. I posted on this when it happened. Here's the link to it.

http://jobs.mymodeltalk.com/viewtopic.php?t=1593

Bottom line. Always check with local authoities as to the validity of the buisness and look to see credits of past work before you agree to travel anywhere. Also you should be able to communicate by phone and have a buisness address you can validate.

If you're going oversees inform the state department and local US Embassy before you leave.

-Mykkal

ChrisPgh

Wow.. Man, that is sobering. I doubt I'd be in line to get sold into slavery (seems like it's female models that are targetted), but still...

Maybe self defense lessons are a good idea for people. Personally, that's mainly what I do; I teach kung fu, currently train 5 styles and teach 2, and have a lot of experiences in it. I'm a mean fighter, though of course that's no guarantee against a gun.

Modeling is new to me, and I thought it was a much more docile, risk-free type of endeavor.

Geez, I guess I'm just absorbing the reality of people being sold into slavery in this day and age.... just boggles the mind.

BTW, speaking of scams, be careful of who you go to for training if you decide to take martial arts. Some of them out there don't teach anything useful, and a lot of them don't even realise it.

Anyhow, thanks for this dose of reality.

Chris,

not sure that self-defense would help in those ways. Think about a drink laced with a sleep inducing drug, etc...'

The best defense is to check credits, be professional in all ways, check buisness addresses and make sure they are legit and never waiver in 'common-sense' rules.