I have been a member of Honeybook for some time – its a great application to pull scheduling and billing for photography shoots together all in one place.

There is also a portion of the app/website where fellow photographers can post help wanted notices.  Its usually photographers looking for second shooters for weddings, or posting opportunities on dates they already have booked.

One such notice caught my eye in around the first of the year:

“Fashion photo shoot opportunity.. please reply to my email (langsmatt070@gmail.com) for more details about the photo gig”

I responded with an interest in the project and got the following reply back from Matt Langs the next day:

I need a photographer that will direct and produce an 
independent street fashion photo shoot for Complex Magazine. 
As the photographer you pick a suitable date and location, 
work with a male and a female model, one hair stylist, 
one makeup artist, and a pro wardrobe stylist.

Complex is a media platform and an online community that 
publishes the best, most diverse and most relevant voices 
in culture, period. With over 120 million unique monthly 
visitors and 1.4B monthly page views, Complex makes 
culture pop from its collection of partners, brands 
and its hub site Complex.com for one of the most 
sought after audiences of millennial influencers ever assembled.

Job details:
1. You will be required to work with 2 models
2. There will be 3 outfits and foot wears per model, 5 
images for each outfit/look, which totals 30 images
3. Outfits/Wardrobe will be supplied by us
4. Location, date, and time will be fixed by you
5. We want 30 professionally taken pictures in 
High Res Digital Copies (800 x 600px)
6. Image type: JPG
7. Transfer method: Fileshare or Dropbox
8. Delivery date:January 30th
9. Full budget: $6300
10. Compensation: $2200 ($700 upfront and $1500 final payment)
11. Talents' budget: $4100
12. You will hold full image right (Licensor)

Sounds like an awesome job opportunity except for a number of red flags:
For a typical shoot like this, the client WILL NOT dictate how many models are going to be used,
WOULD NOT want such low resolution images,
WOULD NOT from the get-go describe payment terms including the ‘upfront’ amount,
WOULD NOT allow the photographer to retain full rights

This was almost verbatim the script from the FLAUNT magazine scam that I blogged about in 2018 and get 5-6 similar ones every year.

Of course I said yes – LOL 🙂

Mr. Langs response:

Hello,

Thanks for the reply and the interest to work with 
us on this project. Your works are quite aesthetic 
and I would love to work with you on this gig. 
There are few details you need to know: 

Wardrobe will be picked by our stylist based on 
urban trends for the fall season. We want you to 
use an outdoor and urban location but not necessarily 
metropolitan. We're not expecting your images to be 
exactly like what’s in the sample images but at the 
same time we really want something creative and artistic.

You will have to do little retouching if pictures 
can be taken with natural lighting. Final images 
will be 30 individual photos; 15 (640 x 480px) 
and 15 (800 x 600px), to be delivered via file 
share or Dropbox. Images will on be used as an 
editorial content on Complex.com for 12 months.

An agency will provide a male and a female fashion 
model, makeup and hair stylists. I was just informed 
the budget for the project has changed a little; 
it’s now $6300 (photographer gets $2200 and $4100 
for the talents). You will be paid $700 upfront 
plus the talents budget while your balance payment 
will be paid after sending us proof that the job 
has been done; usually watermarked images.

Photographers we hire usually take on the 
responsibilities of coordinating the shoot, 
selecting location, and disbursing fees. 
An advance payment of $4800 will be issued 
prior to the shoot; this covers your $700 
upfront and fee for talents’ fee payable 
to their manager.The shoot will take place 
in your city.

you will have to agree to the shoot before 
the company's contract for you can be sent over

If you’re comfortable with the above, please 
confirm the name to be written on your payment 
and contract, phone number, and address.

note,the date for the shoot will be decided after 
you have agreed with our terms.

Regards

Me:

“All sounds good.
Please send over the contract and contact numbers of the local people I will be working with.”

Hello,

Thanks for agreeing to do the shoot; I look forward 
to having a wonderful working relationship with you. 

The agency providing models, Hair stylist, and MUA 
is Eggler and Queck and I will want you to discuss 
possible dates with the agent (Arthur Benjamin Eggler) 
while I work on getting your advance budget and the 
contract; you can email Eggler at Arthurben070@outlook.com
Please send these details: 
Name 
Address 
Phone number

Well, my email footer has my Name, Address and phone number in it already – my buddy Matt must have been missing that.

I responded with my contact info and reached out to Arthur Ben, who responded:

Hello,

Thanks for touching base. We’re to provide 
2 models, a Hair/MUA, and a mobile studio 
(VanImage or Motor home) for Complex’s photo 
shoot you will be coordinating.My team will 
be available to shoot from the 13th January
except (Sundays) to January 25th

I will be waiting for you to pick a date that
best suits you.

Our fee for the entire services is $4100 
including refreshment for my team. Regarding 
payment, we require you to pay our fee prior 
to the shoot; we only accept cash deposit for 
shoot with less than 30 days booking notice 
but if you are unable to do that we accept 
mailing on Money Order.

You will be the one to choose a suitable location 
and a cloudy weather will be okay

If you have any question, please feel free to 
email me. Authurandqueck.com is presently offline 
so I attached the models’ com cards; 
Ray and Hannah fits into the profile Complex 
is looking for.

we look forward to working with you
 

We set a date of January 23rd and I heard nothing back for a while.

In the mean time I reached out to Honeybook and alerted them of the scam – sending them copies of the emails up to that point and referring them to my previous blog posts about scammers of this type.

Amelia from Honeybook got back to me almost immediately:

Hi James,

Amelia from HoneyBook here - thank you so much for 
reporting this in and really sorry for the delay! 

I wanted to confirm that we've fully blocked this 
profile and the listing has been removed from the 
community, and we are working to understand who, 
if anyone, this scammer has been in contact with 
on the system so we can prevent them from falling victim.

As manager of our Member Experience team, 
I generally handle reports of this nature, 
so feel free to call me directly at (415) 591-7768 
for any future reports like this that should be expedited.

Thanks so much,
Amelia

 

A week went by and it figured it was dead as half of these scams just go silent, and I had reported his profile on Honeybook to be a fake and they had taken it down, possibly cluing him into me know this was a fraud – but I prodded the cat to see if it was alive:

“What is the status of the assignment – I haven’t heard back from either of you regarding my several emails about it.
THANKS!!
Jim”

Hello 

I sent you a text on your phone number and 
I’m still waiting for you reply

The only number I had provided him was a landline and told him that.

Hello 

Your check is ready to be mailed,
You will need to insure the check and security fee.

This is because some clients won’t reply 
again when they receive the check So this 
is the measure the company has put in place  
against theft.

You are required to pay the insurance and 
security fee of $350 which will be refunded 
back to you immediately you receive the check.

Thanks

This was a new twist to the old game, asking for “insurance money” to get my money (that I would then have to send to someone else).

“Well of course. I understand the insurance.
THANKS!
Jim”

Thanks for understanding sir 

When will you get the payment done so that I can 
mail your payment check first thing on Monday morning.
You can get a Apple store gift card worth $350 
at any store around you.carefully scratch the 
card and send the picture to me.
It will be converted and paid

So this professional relationship has now turned into a gift card scam – hahaha

I googled “Apple gift card scratch off” and sent them an image that looked legit.

I’m sorry for disturbing you.Please take the 
picture properly to show the value of card
And it’s of high importance to show 
the name of the gift card
Thanks

my reply (another googled image)

 

I’m sorry for disturbing you,
I will need you to snap the full card sir...
there is difficulty in converting the card 
Please kindly do it immediately so that I 
can proceed to mailing your check

with in minutes he emailed me with:

I’m still waiting sir

five minutes later

Are you there sir ?

“Please good Sir Langs.
It takes time to set up my camera and photograph
Patience.
What is your rush?
THANKS!!
Jim”

Okay

I’m gonna sit here and wait...there is no rush
Please take your time

I figured I would take things down a new road and see how far I could go.

“Im rather disturbed that I have heard nothing from Arthur Ben
THANKS!!
Jim”

I chatted him up yesterday and he is ready 
with his team.
The only problem is their payment which will 
be resolved when you receive the payment check

“When will I receive the payment check?
THANKS!!
Jim”

I will mail the check when the insurance and 
security fee has been paid and it will take 
just 24hours for you to receive it

“Would you say that trust and honesty are the most important pieces of business?
THANKS!
Jim”

Yes 
Why did you ask ?
I know you are being cautious and I appreciate it because it shows you are a smart person and I’m sure you are the right person for this photo shoot.
Let your mind be at rest because everything will go on well as planned.

I decided I had had enough and figured this would be the end:

“I’m glad I can trust you.
I haven’t told anyone this but need to come clean to someone
When I was 12 years old I killed Bobby Scoval. He was a friend who tried to swindle some money from me and in my anger I stabbed him to death.
My parents helped me bury the body and keep it secret. No one ever knew what really happened and everyone thought he just ran away from home. That was 30 years ago, but still haunts me.
I hope that this doesn’t taint our great working relationship.
I know that I can trust you.
THANKS!
Jim

but less than 30 minutes later a desperate Mr. Langs replied:

It’s okay...your secret is safe with me and a 
mistake doesn’t define someone
What about the payment?

Gotta give him credit – he had his eyes on the prize.

I decided to borrow a cue from the great spam replier himself James Veitch and threw this at him:

“Thank you for the understanding.
Im concerned about security of our emails.
Please view this video – it raises valid concerns. Watch til the end – I think we should adopt codewords like he does.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QdPW8JrYzQ
THANKS!!
Kit Kat”

a couple hours later I taunted him:

“Are you still there?
Sincerely,
Kit Kat”

He came back three days later (the day of the actual shoot) with:

You have diverted from the line of business 
Maybe you aren’t interested in the photo shoot anymore

“I am deeply devoted to the craft of photography.
You obviously did not view the video I sent.
I would look at it if I were you.
You also might want to look at this since its is exactly the same line of business that you are in, but the name of the magazine is different:
https://www.jamesdecamp.com/2018/08/29/another-day-another-scam-going-around-flaunt-magazine/
Let me know if you have any questions.
Sincerely,
Kit Kat”

 

I think I’ll see if he is still around and send him this blog post 🙂