London, England -- (SBWIRE) -- 12/23/2010 -- Leading Modelling agencies from around the UK highlight sham business practices in order to safeguard prospective models and also distance themselves from agencies that place a dark cloud over the industry as a whole.

Although a lot has been done to clean up the image of modelling agencies there are still a number of unscrupulous, some might say even fraudulent agencies out there whose main intention is commercial gain above anything else.

A spokeswoman from a leading modelling agency sums up the industry’s concerns and says,’ Although the internet has opened up a whole new world of opportunity for consumers and business alike it is also true that it has led to more opportunities for the more unscrupulous operators. From an industry perspective these scams are potentially damaging to the whole industry which is why we are highlighting the working practices of these con men and providing advice to prospective models on how to avoid them.’

Aside from the internet, another common advertising medium used by those facilitating unscrupulous business practices and UK modelling scams are newspapers and magazines. Advertisements for extras, models and actors are generally the most common type of advert and applicants are often asked for an admin or marketing fee ranging from £25-£250.

Our spokeswoman goes onto say, ‘A problem that has blighted our industry for many years and is still common today are bogus model & casting agents or companies.

These agencies are typically very convincing and will often go to the trouble of hiring an exclusive conference room or hotel suite in order to reinforce their credibility in front of their victims. These agencies perform their casting seminars throughout the countries and we have numerous reports of people being conned of anything from £50 to £200 per person.’

There have also been reports of people being duped via social networking sites such as Bebo and Facebook. The message from the reputable modelling agencies seems to be the same, research the agency meticulously before parting with any money and even then seek independent verification.

Our spokeswoman concludes by saying, ‘Although we are not legally obliged to provide advice on the scams perpetrated by unscrupulous operators we do feel morally obliged to highlight the crooks in our midst, if only one prospective model reads our advice and acts upon it we will feel that this initiative is worthwhile.