A number of young teenagers have been targeted by a fake Snapchat account, posing as an Irish modelling agency.
The account, posing as ACA Models, sent direct messages to teens as young as fourteen, claiming that they could earn between £450 and £55,000 by working for the company.
According to the Belfast Telegraph, the actual agency’s boss, Alison Clarke, was alerted to the imposter account on Saturday by her friend’s daughter – and has since warned the public about the sinister scam.
The messages received by the young girls claimed to be from a woman called Louise, who said she recruited for ACA Models agency, and encouraged the girls to send pictures of themselves.
Scary: Model boss Alison has warned of the scam | FACEBOOK
“The reason I have added you, is because after looking at least one of your Instagram photos we have decided that you are suitable to model for our agency,” the message read.
“We are offering between £450 and £55,000 a shoot depending on who we put you forward for. In terms of different types of modelling we literally do every single type you could think of. Obviously the more you are interested in the better chance you have of getting jobs.
“This is a one-off opportunity and we are looking for 30 new models. This is purely based on a first come, first served basis. If you are interested, then please give me a message asap. Bear in mind the reason why we have added you to our company Snapchat account is because we are interested in you as well.”
The agency boss also took to their official Facebook page to warn young girls to not be conned by the fake account, and ensured that they do NOT recruit models online.
“I started getting lots of private messages from people asking if we were recruiting on Snapchat. Then I got a message from a 14-year-old girl asking if we were taking on new models through the app, as she had been asked to join,” she told the Belfast Telegraph.
“The young girl wrote back saying she was interested and that she would love to be a model and has always been interested. The person wrote back asking for some pictures of her and she sent some head pictures. The person replied and said they would like to see some body pictures.
“Fortunately she alerted her mum to the account after that. It’s very dangerous. We definitely don’t contact people through social media or send any alerts to any random people.
“It’s happened in the past – people have been in Belfast city and went up to people saying they were from ACA Models and were scouting and asked for details.”
