Asking for help to bust a scammer

Hey there dudes. Hope you're staying safe and doing okay

So a good friend of mine started discussing this situation with me, I've had some ideas of how I could help her out but thought I'll ask you guys for advice as well. Mostly Instagram but also Facebook pages related.

Here's the info that was shared with me:

"
TLDR - a photographer is scamming people (with and without contracts, paid and unpaid) by not giving the pictures after the photoshoots but still uploading some of the pictures to her photography Facebook and Instagram pages, as well as selling the photos to magazines or other sites. She's deleting negative comments and blocking people who are trying to get their pictures back. The Reviews section on her Facebook page is disabled so no one can write them. People apparently tried reporting her pages but that didn't help either.

13 September 2019 a photographer posted in a local Facebook group saying she was visiting my area and offering a free family/couple photoshoot. I loved her photo style, she seemed to have quite a lot of experience and loads of FB and Insta followers, so I messaged her that my spouse and I would like to get a photo shoot. She suggested a meeting place and time, we asked about what to wear etc. She didn't say anything about contracts (I know, big mistake but I had no experience with photographers and didn't know free photoshoots should have contracts too).

14 September 2019 One day before the photoshoot I also messaged her to double check if we could get some electronic copies of the pictures without her logo on it as we'd like to put them in the family album and she said yes.

15 September 2019 We had the photoshoot, she took lots of different pictures actually. During the photoshoot she said she'd send a few pics within days and the remaining would be done in about a month.

16 September 2019 she sent me 1 picture via messenger but it still had her logo in the middle of it, she sent a message straight away saying she will send a copy without a logo (she never did).

She uploaded a picture with us to her Insta sometime at the end of the month

18 October 2019 I messaged to ask when we'd get more pictures and she said she had just come back from Italy and would try to get it done in the next couple of weekends.

22 November 2019 I messaged saying it's been a month since the last message and asked when I'd get the pictures. She read it but didn't reply.

26 November 2019 I asked if I can at least get raw unedited files if she's too busy. She said she'll "try".

4 March 2020 I messaged her saying I saw she uploaded a picture with us in January 2020 and asked if the pictures are perhaps ready. She read it but didn't reply.

Now is 27 April 2020 and I looked into it more as I'm unhappy about her using photos of us to promote her work. I messaged girls I found tagged/mentioned in her pictures. Some of the girls pointed me to others. Turns out there are loads of other families and couples who never received their pictures despite the photographer posting some pictures on her social media publicly. It seems that the majority of the families had paid as opposed to my free photoshoot but not all had written contracts. I spoke to a girl who said she never got anything after a photoshoot 2 years ago, a married couple who did not get their wedding pictures from 2019 summer, also someone did not receive the pictures from their child's christening ceremony. One of the ladies advised me to check comments about her in a Facebook group from another area and there were more than a 100 comments complaining about her not giving the pictures back, constantly lying or giving excuses, deleting any negative comments on her social media pages, not picking up the phone, eventually ignoring messages and even blocking some people on Facebook.

I am so frustrated that someone like this keeps advertising that she still has some dates for 2020 and is taking bookings for 2021 and the people she scammed can't even comment or review to warn others!
"

I already have all the personal details of that person. Emails, phone numbers, real names of her and her ex-husband.

I just wanted to see what you guys think could be done about this (not necessarily anything black hat).

Thank you for your time everybody.

From what i read that lady is a psychopath . But just to let u know u can't do nothing about legally since u don't have a contract or something

I think you got the wrong forum mate. We don't do anything against anyone. We only rank sites.

looks bad but not really sure what bhw can do

I dont understand why she would go to the trouble of taking the photos and not give you a copy.

But setting that aside...

Depending on where you live and the laws you typically need to sign a photo release form to allow publication of photos of you. If nit whoever publishes them is on legally shaky ground.

From what you were saying there was no agreement. So she does not have one. So report her to where she publishes them and ask for them to be removed.

GringoMonkey said:

I dont undetrtand why she would go to the trouble of taking the photos and not give you a copy.

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Me too, its ridiculous.

ziko12345 said:

Me too, its ridiculous.

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Maybe because...

Weird, what is her profit in withholding the photo?
. Well if there are a lot of victim try to make a group, invite everyone that become victim. Than pool together the proof. As you said some have contract, some paid but didn't receive etc list it all than after that you can thing your next step, how stong the legality etc

At this point it's obnoxious to expect her to give you pictures. What I would do though is to start asking all those people that were hustled, to start report her IG/FB account. But all of you, not 1-2 persons.

Here's a link where you can find some usefully links for Instagram to report: https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/guide-how-to-recover-a-banned-disabled-ig-account.1038677/

Nice opportunity to do this: https://www.blackhatworld.com/seo/im-about-to-be-rich-boys.1225433/

Hehehe

bartosimpsonio said:

I think you got the wrong forum mate. We don't do anything against anyone. We only rank sites.

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And bash bitcoin.

If you really want to go through the trouble then try using a honey pot strategy.

Create a fake account, make it look legit. The next time she visits a local area you can message her asking for a photoshoot from the fake account and then show up for a confrontation. While this will make a great movie plot, it's really a drag to pull off.

kn1ves said:

If you really want to go through the trouble then try using a honey pot strategy.

Create a fake account, make it look legit. The next time she visits a local area you can message her asking for a photoshoot from the fake account and then show up for a confrontation. While this will make a great movie plot, it's really a drag to pull off.

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I would do this.

Contact her for a photo shoot and expose her, tag her on IG and FB and ask the other people she scammed to share it.
I'm sure she'll be shook and you'll go viral.

I personally love revenge on scammer videos especially during quarantine

Had a review of this thread. If possible, are you able to let me know which country your friend is from?
Each country has their own laws pertaining to the withdrawal of consent on the use of images, contract or no contract.
If no contract had been provided, you are able to lodge a complaint or request the removal of same under privacy.

If youre after her social media accounts, why not gather a bunch of people a make a "report party"? Just report her pages for the same reason, eg. scam. If this is done by a bunch of people, Instagram or Facebook algorithms will be sure to notice this.

Take her to small claim court and show messages to judge. Take couple witnesses with you or get written testimonies