Photo Scams and Fake Contests
By Davidarich
@Davidarich (985)
Australia
October 14, 2008 8:14am CST
I hate 'em. They con you with a line about your baby photo winning a $1000 photo contest, or seeing your photo in print, or a big photo/poetry/story/writing contest. You enter and~ wham! You are a finalist; or Wow! Just get all your friends and family to log on and vote and your sure to win a prize! Or, Congratulations, you are a finalist and all you need to qualify now is...
Well, EVERYBODY wins, you included... and it's going to cost you...
These are not the onlt ones (picture.com comes to mind), but if it says International Library of _____ (fill in the blank: photography, poetry etc.) or Noble House, then two things you can be sure of: they aren't libraries, and they aren't noble!
Well, today I responded to 2 excited Mylotters who had been sucked in by these scam merchants, so hopefully a few more people might see this discussion before the parasites get their hooks in.
Have a look at my "intel" at http://www.qassia.com/publishing-scams and then add a note here - share you experience with your fellow MyLotters.
6 responses
@trickiwoo (2702)
• United States
14 Oct 08
Hahaha, I love the International Library Of (insert here)! They're all the same! You enter your photo, poem, etc. Then you get a letter saying you're a finalist and your photo, poem, etc. is appearing in a book! You can own a copy of the book with your work in it for a very large sum of money! Then you get invited to conferences that normally cost thousands of dollars... but you can go for only a few hundred dollars! Then you win awards! But if you want the plaque that says you won the award, you have to pay!
There are tons of legitimate photo contests out there! You just have to be aware that there are also a lot of scams out there.
Also, you should always read the terms of service before entering a photo in a competition! There are lots of competitions that as soon as you enter your photo, they own all of the rights to it... even if you don't win!
@trickiwoo (2702)
• United States
15 Oct 08
Haha, yes, in high school I entered the International Library Of Poetry contest thingie. Then when I got the letter, I was like, "Yay! Oh wait... they want me to buy all this stuff! That's crap!"
Years later I entered the International Library of Photography contest, fully knowing it was a scam but knowing that I wouldn't give them a penny for anything they tried to sell me. It's free to enter! And they publish your photo in a book that they scam a bunch of people to buy! I really got a kick of all the stuff they tried to sell me!
@Davidarich (985)
• Australia
16 Oct 08
Actually they only add your picture to the book if you are one of the people who buys it. You never get published if you don't pay, so the only pictures you see in the book with yours were made by other people they ripped off.
Glad you learned early!
David
@SomeCowgirl (32191)
• United States
6 Jan 09
Those kind of things go around so often that I can only trust the local ones. Places that I have to drive to get to, and things I get through the mail (even those can be risky) if it's on t.v., then they must not be a scam (atleast my thoughts).
@tismesara (113)
• United States
15 Oct 08
thanks for that. i dont enter those because i have 2 lil children and there are so many sick people out there willing to do.. who knows what, and i dont wnat them oogling my kids..
anyway, thanks for your knowledge on this matter also!
@adihindu (1922)
• India
14 Oct 08
Thanks for sharing your knowledge. No one will give us free money. We have to find the way to get it. But some people, try to use easy methods (most are scams) to get that money. Eventhough there are some noble sites, most of them are scams and it is very hard to find noble ones. So please avoid those scams and be careful when you are investing in some where.
@Davidarich (985)
• Australia
14 Oct 08
Too true, adihindu. Worse, many of these people prey on our love for our children.
