Modelling scam: Fake Honey Birdette scouts gets young girls to take their clothes off
Police have spoken to teenage girls who complained they were targeted on social media by an alleged Honey Birdette talent scout who persuaded them to pose naked.
NSW
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Young women who stripped naked online and auditioned for modelling shoots have spoken of their horror at falling victim to a sextortion scam orchestrated by a fake casting director who posed as a representative for a provocative lingerie brand.
Police confirmed they had spoken to several teenagers who complained they were targeted on social media by a talent scout claiming she was a representative for lingerie company Honey Birdette and promised them lucrative modelling contracts subject to casting for a sexy Skype photo shoot.
Officers said the girls should now monitor porn hubs for published images and pornographic content but warned of the difficulty of tracing anonymous offenders who hid behind websites.
Aspiring model Jordyn Hagan Gaunt, 18, complained to Ashfield police that the “woman” lured her into an intricate web of lies in which she innocently recruited friends for naked modelling shoots conducted over Skype.
“I’ve always wanted to do modelling so I was desperate to believe this person who messaged me on Instagram and said they were from Honey Birdette,” Ms Gaunt, from Balmain, said.
“When the instructions were typed out on the screen on Skype, they asked me to take off my underwear so they could see my body type and parade around the bedroom naked.
“Stupidly, I did it — I can’t believe I was so naive.
“I had never done a modelling shoot before ... the person asked if my boyfriend was around and if we could make out on camera. I said ‘no’ and felt really weirded out and said I was going to switch off the call. They told me not to worry, I had done brilliantly and I was short-listed for a contract.’’
Ms Gaunt later encouraged two friends to take part believing the talent agent was, in fact, a family friend’s mother with the same name whose daughter models.
“I don’t know how this person knew my friend’s mother has the same name,’’ she said.
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“I’ve told the police about it, they say there’s nothing they can do, that I was foolish to believe a person whose credentials I could not check.
“I know that, but I’d never done a casting before.
“The police officer told me, ‘Prepare for the bombshell, you’re going to end up on porn sites’. I’m terrified men will be perving on me on porn sites that I haven’t agreed to go on, I feel so stupid and hate the fact I recruited friends. I’m so upset about the whole ordeal, I’m only talking about this to warn other girls not to be as foolish as me.”
Several days later, her friend, a retail assistant who asked to remain anonymous, performed an online Skype audition where she, too, was asked to model in her underwear.
The girl, 19, from Wollongong, carried out the instructions, which went on to ask her to strip naked and wear only a granddad shirt.
Honey Birdette founder Eloise Monaghan denounced the scammers as “upsetting” and “disgraceful” and said her talent spotters never cold called and used only professional models from agents.
“To prey on young, naive girls is disgraceful,’’ she said.
Police confirmed detectives were investigating.