Fake account posing as model agent targets teens
of Ireland’s leading modelling agencies have issued a warning after someone posing as a scout deceived young girls into sending photos of themselves, the Irish Mail on Sunday can reveal.
Management at 1st Options and Assets model agencies are urging teenagers to beware of fake Snapchat accounts whereby the ‘agent’ attempts to lure aspiring models with promises of a ‘lucrative career’. In an attempt at legitimacy, the fraudster even sent private messages to some of the girls’ parents to assuage suspicions.
This week, 1st Options owner Jules Fallon was understandably upset when she learned her company had been targeted by an online predator. A friend said: ‘Jules is incredibly distressed that this has happened and how easy it is for people to be duped online. Luckily, she was alerted to it quickly so she went to the police with all of the messages and details of the false account. She is determined that whoever is behind it is stopped.’
Last month a number of women contacted Assets enquiring about the shots that they had sent in. In some cases they admitted they were duped into sending bikini pictures to the fake account. Assets owners Derek Daniels and Courtney O’Hara reported the account and it soon disappeared.
Former Miss Ireland Jessica Hayes has warned that aspiring models should always have a face-toface meeting with potential agents and should never send pictures online. She said: ‘Never send pictures to anyone. An agency will always have photographers that they work with and they will arrange for pictures to be done. You should never go about doing it yourself.’