A woman posts adds on Craig's List looking for second shooters in Philadelphia and NJ. She promises to pay them and never does once the shoot is complete. I have names of two other photographers, one who in fact took her to court, but she never showed up.
What is the best way to get this woman to stop. I am concerned for others who fall into her trap. There are so many wannabees that she may have endless numbers of assistants she promises to pay and does not fulfill her promise...she has written contracts and continues to get away with this.
I also understand that in one situation she shot a wedding, received payment and then disappeared without providing the pictures. I cannot tell you how she did this, particularly if she contracted with the clients...so this may or may not be true.
Is there any way which would avoid harassment charges (towards the unpaid photographers) that would help us stop her? Thanks.
I wrote this photographer a formal, legal style letter. In this letter, I mentioned I have a copy of her Craig's List posting and have names of other photographers who had similar experiences. I told her that every day I did not receive the balance of my payment I would take some action of rebuttle. I received the check yesterday. She wrote she didn't understand why the previous check she sent did not reach me.
All's well that ends.
Edited by Justdidi on Jun 13, 2007 at 03:28 AM GMT
Edited by Justdidi on Jun 13, 2007 at 03:32 AM GMT
There was a photog in Atlanta some time back who scammed literally hundreds of brides. Changed businesses, names, etc, in order to further his scams. It took a ton of time for the gendarmes to finally corral him. Then he told the judge a little sob story, and promised to be good. I think he did a little soft time, but basically got away with most of his skin intact. Considering the money he absconded with, it was quite a profitable venture as far as I know. On the other hand, if everybody she screws takes her to small claims court, gets a judgement, then files for discovery of her assets, it can get to be quite fun for her.
If you hurry, I think the Sopranos are still in business. Maybe a late hit before they go off the air could be worked out.
Take her info to your local Attorney General and file a fraud complaint . They will do something about her . Craigslist is a joke and so are most of the photographers that advertise there .
Yeah there was a guy who travels the country scamming brides and photographers and the problem is, since he moves so much, nobody can really track him or even arrest him. Luckily, I only lost $300. This guy even has a small internet movement after him and they haven't been able to do much. Most of the time he goes by "Darien Small." and the website is www.stopdariensmall.com
He tries to get out of stuff by pushing his disabled daughter on people and they feel bad and forgive him. People like him and this lady you talk about are the scum of the earth. The best you can do is probably warn everybody. Take some tips from the website. I know they are getting legal help.
Instead of focusing on someone else's dealings, maybe you should just put the effort into building your own success. If other people fall prey to this woman, well that's THEIR problem. You can't take on the responsibility of protecting the world from scumbags. Take care of yourself first. The scammer will get what's coming to her eventually.
Mike Pipes wrote:
Instead of focusing on someone else's dealings, maybe you should just put the effort into building your own success. If other people fall prey to this woman, well that's THEIR problem. You can't take on the responsibility of protecting the world from scumbags. Take care of yourself first. The scammer will get what's coming to her eventually.
I disagree, Mike. Information is power. And, the more information that is out there on scumbags, the better for all concerned.
Everybody needs to work on their own sucess. But, helping the entire photography profession to maintain a high ethical and moral standard is the responsibility of each and every one of us.
Mike Pipes wrote:
Instead of focusing on someone else's dealings, maybe you should just put the effort into building your own success. If other people fall prey to this woman, well that's THEIR problem. You can't take on the responsibility of protecting the world from scumbags. Take care of yourself first. The scammer will get what's coming to her eventually.
Have you never been taken by a scam of any kind or dodgy services or less than satisfactory products? Would you volunteer to take our defective equipment off our hands at inflated prices?
Ridding the marketplace of scammers makes the profession more respectable and increases the amount of money spent on professional photographers and wedding photographers instead of being spent on caterers or vacation hotels. Money sucked up by a scammer is not available for an honest professional such as yourself. Suspicion about scammers can make clients skip over you to someone even more solid, without you knowing you lost the business. I hope that our interests are allied and aligned.
You guys make valid points but we're talking about Craig's List, the well-known home of the internet scammer. People need to be a little more proactive in protecting themselves when dealing with essentially anonymous people, especially if they can't find any information on someone before going into negotiations with them.
Putting her on the Sopranos hit list or harrassing the hell out of her is quite tempting, to say the least. I have had a few ideas...but I leave them to the imagination of the reader.
That being said, there are some decent people who advertise on Craig's list. I have placed a number of adds and have had some positive experiences with buyers, sellers and photographers. My feeling is that the vast majority of people, professionals included, are relatively honest and keep their end of the bargain. It just takes one schmo like this to screw things up as far as I'm concerned. I'm still in the throws of deciding what to do. I know that there are several people who would walk into small claims court with me as witnesses.
One thought I had was to send my work to the client separately and let them know that the shots I send them are mine. That way I may get more "word of mouth" work. The head shooter had a bad hand. She had a huge bandage on her hand and had a very hard time using her two Nikon film cams. In fact I carried them around for her, loaded them and generally helped in that arena as well. She claims she fell through a glass table and was grappling with 20 some odd sutures. During the wedding, she took percoset and drank several glasses of wine. I suspect that her work was not all that steady. So it may be worth my while to send my digital shots to the client and enclose a card.
Does this sound feasible? In addition, I will try to contact magazines where she advertises, Craig's list and other resources suggested to me. Then I think I should let this go. Maybe I will post a warning on Craig's List periodically as that is where she "vultures" for other young uns.
