Canceled Shoot

There are many scams that target photographers because photographers are such an easy prey. Photographers are too eager to get the job. This scam involves the offer of doing a local photo shoot from an overseas company. If you are in Canada/US then they are from the UK, France or Germany or even Nigeria. If you are in the UK they call from Canada, the US or Nigeria.

The scam

1. Somebody phones/emails you: They saw your photos on your website or you were recommended by a friend.
2. They have a photo shoot to be done: just in your area and you would be the perfect photographer.
3. The photo shoot will be a good one.
4. They will pay your day rate + the expenses.
5. They sign the contract with a cheque as deposit to confirm the photo shoot.

The contract stipulates that in case of cancellation, you will reimburse them 50% of the deposit.

1. 4 or 5 days latter after the contract has been signed, they call back and want to cancel the photo shoot. According to the contract, you will have to refund 50% of the deposit.
2. You verify with your bank that the cheque did not bounce, it did not.
3. You mail them a cheque for 50% of the deposit.
4. Finally 3 weeks later you find that the original cheque they sent you bounced, and now you are out of the 50%.
5. The cheque they sent you was from a small bank on another continent.
6. Cheques from different banking systems such as North American vs. European will take between 2 weeks to as much as 6 weeks to clear.
7. Rarely does your bank will place a hold on a foreign cheque, so as far as they are concerned, it has been cleared.

This is known as the advance fee fraud