Biz
Canceled Shoot
Canceled Shoot
There are many scams that target photographers because photographers are easy prey1. 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.
Scam
- Somebody phones/emails you: They saw your photos on your website, on PhotoServe or you were recommended by a friend.
- They have a photo shoot to be done: just in your area and you would be the perfect photographer.
- The photo shoot will be a good one.
- They will pay your day rate + the expenses.
- 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.
- 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.
- You verify with your bank that the cheque did not bounce, it did not.
- You mail them a cheque for 50% of the deposit.
- Finally 3 weeks later you find that the original cheque they sent you bounced, and now you are out of the 50%.
- The cheque they sent you was from a small bank on another continent.
- Cheques from different banking systems such as North American vs. European will take between 2 weeks or as much as 6 weeks to clear.
- 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: Wikipedia
1 Photographers are very eager to get the job ↑
There are many scams that target photographers because photographers are easy prey1. 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.
Scam
- Somebody phones/emails you: They saw your photos on your website, on PhotoServe or you were recommended by a friend.
- They have a photo shoot to be done: just in your area and you would be the perfect photographer.
- The photo shoot will be a good one.
- They will pay your day rate + the expenses.
- 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.
- 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.
- You verify with your bank that the cheque did not bounce, it did not.
- You mail them a cheque for 50% of the deposit.
- Finally 3 weeks later you find that the original cheque they sent you bounced, and now you are out of the 50%.
- The cheque they sent you was from a small bank on another continent.
- Cheques from different banking systems such as North American vs. European will take between 2 weeks or as much as 6 weeks to clear.
- 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: Wikipedia
1 Photographers are very eager to get the job ↑
