The UK’s top modelling agencies are joining together to combat the growing menace of unscrupulous agencies and individuals who mislead and in some cases deceive for commercial gain

London, England, 1st Feb 2011– In order to combat the growing rise in unscrupulous and fraudulent modelling and casting outfits, the legitimate industry is taking steps to inform potential models of the things to look out for before attending any appointments.

Although the legitimate modelling agencies have taken great steps to clean up the image of their industry there are still a significant number of sham companies and agencies out there who mislead and misinform potential models in order to extract money from them. The leading agencies have recently begun to highlight the dangers and pitfalls on their websites in order to help people overcome the most common scams.

A spokeswoman from one the UK’s leading agencies says, ‘Although at first glance it may appear that only the potential model is being ripped off by these fraudsters it runs a lot deeper than that. These so called agents cast a dark cloud over the whole industry with their illicit methods and indirectly impact upon legitimate agencies with nothing less than 100% track records. Our ultimate goal in focusing on these dangers will hopefully prevent more people being duped of their money and hopes and also limit the damage to our industry as a whole.’

The most common UK modelling scam usually involves prospective models being invited to casting sessions or similar and asked to pay a deposit for a portfolio or similar which the ‘agency’ keep and then disappear. More often than not these sham agencies avoid suspicion by holding their interviews/casting sessions/auditions at upmarket locations such as five star hotels so they appear to the uninitiated legitimate companies.

Our spokeswoman goes onto say, ‘We would advise any potential model who has been invited to an interview or casting session to fully research the agency’s background before attending and walk away immediately if ask to pay any money in advance. We would also advice people not to be taken in by a flashy website, anyone can build a website and masquerade as a legitimate company, unfortunately many of these websites are just part of a larger smokescreen.’

Our spokeswoman concludes by saying, ‘We have taken a great deal of time and effort in making this information available to prospective models and the public and would recommend that people read it thoroughly before engaging in any type of discussion with any agency.’