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Scam test

For parents

Someone you love wants to model?

Wanting to model is a normal ambition, with honest professionals behind it. The danger is the scammers who target beginners, and teenagers most of all. Here are some ideas to accompany your child responsibly and safely.

Take the ambition seriously

Dismissing it pushes the conversation underground, and underground is where scammers operate. Ask to see the offers, the profiles, the messages. Ask with curiosity rather than suspicion. You want to be the first person they show a message to, not the last.

Learn the six warning signs together

Read the checklist with them, out loud if you can. Agree on the rules: no undressing to be assessed, no money before work, no private meetings, no urgency, everything on the platform, everything verifiable. Rules you agreed on together are rules they will keep when you are not there.

Go with them to first meetings

Every first casting or shoot: you, or another adult they trust, in the building. Real professionals expect it and often prefer it. Anyone who objects has failed the test, and your child will see it with their own eyes.

Run the checks together

Search for the agency or photographer, find their real phone number, call, confirm the offer. Do it side by side so it becomes a habit rather than a rule imposed from above. Use the two-minute scam test on this site as a starting point.

Scam test

Search for the agency or photographer, find their real phone number, call, confirm the offer. Do it side by side so it becomes a habit rather than a rule imposed from above. Use the two-minute scam test on this site as a starting point.

Take the 2-minute scam test

The model scam test

Eight quick questions about the offer you received. The verdict follows the six warning signs of a model scam. Nothing is stored; nobody but you sees your answers.

  1. 1 Did they ask for photos in underwear or nude, "to see your body" or "to assess you"?

    Agencies assess new faces with polaroids: plain clothes, natural light, no make-up.

  2. 2 Did they give you details you can check yourself: the client, an agency name, a landline, an office address, a website?

    Facts you can confirm on your own, not screenshots or logos.

  3. 3 Are you being asked to pay anything before working: a registration fee, a book, a course, travel or visa costs?

    Agencies earn when you earn.

  4. 4 Are you being pressured: decide today, keep it confidential, or annoyance and bad manners the moment you ask questions?

    Real professionals expect to be checked and never mind the questions.

  5. 5 Can you bring a friend or a parent to the first meeting, in an office, a studio or a public place?

    Real castings happen in offices and studios, and nobody minds your friend in the waiting room.

  6. 6 Did they ask to move the conversation to WhatsApp, Telegram or a personal email right away?

    Off the platform, nothing can be reported.

  7. 7 Have they threatened to publish or send photos of you if you don't send more, do another shoot or meet them (or pay)?

    That is blackmail, a crime. Do not send more, keep everything, report it.

  8. 8 Have you found the agency or photographer yourself (their own website, their own phone number) and confirmed the offer with them?

    The one step that defeats almost every scam.