...it's like TV Tropes, but LINKED DATA!
Model Scam
- 182 statements
- 34 feature instances
- 39 referencing feature instances
| Model Scam | type |
FeatureClass | |
| Model Scam | label |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam | page |
ModelScam | |
| Model Scam | comment |
This is a type of scam with a broad range of utility. Sometimes it can even be pulled off without a camera, but photos are usually involved. It requires approaching the victim of the scam and convincing them that they are the most beautiful person the scam artist has ever met. Or at least in the top 10%, and if they would be willing to take a chance on the artist, the victim can make it big. At this point, the scam starts to vary. Those who are looking to scam the victim out of their money will require upfront payment (usually expensive) and take photographs of the person, promising to spread the photos and contact information of the victim around the market, getting important people to check them out, typically national model scouts and internationally famous modeling agencies. It's "guaranteed" to work. However, about half the time the camera was just a prop and the victim is out a few hundred or more with nothing to show for it. There's more legitimate versions of this type of scam, where the pictures are real, but the victim is paying the scammer to submit a resume for an embarrassing mascot costume job or something else that the victim could have done for free. Another version that is less about taking money from the victim and more about exploiting the victim, gets its money from selling pornographic pictures. The scam starts out the same way, and usually has a legitimate photographer who does make money by doing photoshoots, but they see an opportunity to exploit and they take it. The photographer asks for just a slight change in clothing, pulling one sleeve down and showing a little extra skin. Bit by bit, the photographer wears away at the confidence of their victim, snapping pictures the entire time and rewarding them with praise whenever they obey the suggestions. This will go all the way to naked photoshoots if the victim lets it. Then, the photos can be sold to perverts and the negatives used as Blackmail to coerce the victim into more exploitation. Such sexual exploitation can end up very similar to Casting Couch, where the scam artist is trying to convince the victim to have sex. The difference is that in the Couch trope, the victim gets a job, while in the Scam, the job was never really going to the person in the first place. Shameful Strip is also similar, as the victim may be ashamed/embarrassed to undress, but in this case the victim isn't being tortured (it just feels that way). Situations where the scammer is trying to exploit the victim for money or some other gain with nothing sexual involved are common enough to be Truth in Television. A Sleazy Photoshoot is similar, but is intended as an actual shoot even though the model goes through similar circumstances. The very darkest of versions has the scam being used as a front for a Human Trafficking operation. Victims unfortunate enough to be lured into this version of the scam can expect even worse than the above sexual exploitation — oftentimes their fate is to be made some variety of Sex Slave. Contrast Modeling is Glamorous. |
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| Model Scam | fetched |
2023-10-03T11:46:11Z | |
| Model Scam | parsed |
2023-10-03T11:46:11Z | |
| Model Scam | processingComment |
Dropped link to HoistByTheirOwnPetard: Not an Item - UNKNOWN | |
| Model Scam | processingComment |
Dropped link to ImpliedTrope: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Model Scam | processingComment |
Dropped link to ThatOneCase: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Model Scam | processingComment |
Dropped link to TheMovie: Not an Item - FEATURE | |
| Model Scam | processingUnknown |
HoistByTheirOwnPetard | |
| Model Scam | isPartOf |
DBTropes | |
| Model Scam / int_111c48dd | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_111c48dd | comment |
An episode of the 1990s TV version of The Untouchables involves one of the agents discovering his sister has fallen prey to this (with the same application of drugs-as-control used in the Wonder Woman/Batman example in the Comics section above). | |
| Model Scam / int_111c48dd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_111c48dd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Untouchables | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_111c48dd | |
| Model Scam / int_23ae009a | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_23ae009a | comment |
Subverted in Great Teacher Onizuka - Tomoko thinks this is what's going to happen to her, but ends up getting discovered by a real talent agent. | |
| Model Scam / int_23ae009a | featureApplicability |
-0.3 | |
| Model Scam / int_23ae009a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Great Teacher Onizuka (Manga) | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_23ae009a | |
| Model Scam / int_277975b4 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_277975b4 | comment |
In the Miss Marple story The Body in the Library, this was how the murderers obtained one of their victims. | |
| Model Scam / int_277975b4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_277975b4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Miss Marple | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_277975b4 | |
| Model Scam / int_2abd5315 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_2abd5315 | comment |
In the early UK run of Whose Line Is It Anyway?, a scene suggestion that started out as simply 'a talent scout' is immediately taken in this direction by Mike McShane and Josie Lawrence. | |
| Model Scam / int_2abd5315 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_2abd5315 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Whose Line Is It Anyway? | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_2abd5315 | |
| Model Scam / int_2f879a72 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_2f879a72 | comment |
Red Ears: The current page image shows a sleazy-looking guy approaching a young woman and her boyfriend and promising her a big career in films. What he fails to mention is that he is a porn director, which the woman only realizes when she shows up to the set. | |
| Model Scam / int_2f879a72 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_2f879a72 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Red Ears (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_2f879a72 | |
| Model Scam / int_37c12fb0 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_37c12fb0 | comment |
Chicago: A Black-and-Grey Morality variant. The main character is sleeping with a man mainly because she thinks he's a producer who can help her career. He's not. | |
| Model Scam / int_37c12fb0 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_37c12fb0 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Chicago | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_37c12fb0 | |
| Model Scam / int_38fa34eb | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_38fa34eb | comment |
A Wonder Woman/Batman graphic novel, The Hiketeia, involves a young woman whose sister was lured to Gotham City under the lure of this trope and quickly dragged into prostitution enforced by (forced) heroin addiction before eventually being murdered. The woman's vengeance against her sister's enslavers/killers leads her to ask for Wonder Woman's protection from Batman (since she had, y'know, murdered her sister's killers). | |
| Model Scam / int_38fa34eb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_38fa34eb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Wonder Woman (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_38fa34eb | |
| Model Scam / int_40f118dc | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_40f118dc | comment |
In I Spit on Your Grave 2, Katie Carter is initially lured into the hands of the Human Traffickers that put her through hell by means of a modeling scam. The horrors that she suffers set the stage for one hell of a Roaring Rampage of Revenge. | |
| Model Scam / int_40f118dc | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_40f118dc | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| I Spit on Your Grave | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_40f118dc | |
| Model Scam / int_44715363 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_44715363 | comment |
Happens to Anzu/Tea of Yu-Gi-Oh!, who is promised a chance to be a dancer like she's always wanted. In the original, Anzu was blackmailed to come to the gym under threat that the blackmailer would reveal her true age to her workplace and get her fired. The blackmailer was the gym teacher and wanted to videotape her body. In both versions, this leads to a Rescue Romance, as she fell in love with the Pharoah after he saved her from the pervert. | |
| Model Scam / int_44715363 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_44715363 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Yu-Gi-Oh! (Manga) | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_44715363 | |
| Model Scam / int_4a8918e1 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_4a8918e1 | comment |
Happens in Key the Metal Idol, to the very naive title character. Fortunately, the scumbags ordered delivery, and her friend Tomoko who brought the food figured out what was going on, and saved her. | |
| Model Scam / int_4a8918e1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_4a8918e1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Key the Metal Idol | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_4a8918e1 | |
| Model Scam / int_5261d625 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_5261d625 | comment |
In one Samurai Champloo episode, an artist offers to sketch Fuu and it turns out that he's aiding a sex slavery ring — he sketches women and people make "orders" based on the drawings and the models get kidnapped and sold. Fuu is rescued before anything bad can happen but presumably, this trope was played straight for the other women. | |
| Model Scam / int_5261d625 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_5261d625 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Samurai Champloo | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_5261d625 | |
| Model Scam / int_5921531a | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_5921531a | comment |
Tanaka, the Devil Social Link in Persona 3, pulls the "scamming for money" variant on the Player Character, stringing it out until the protagonist has shelled out 40,000 yen before finally admitting that there's no such opportunity. Naturally, falling for the scam is the only way to begin his Social Link. | |
| Model Scam / int_5921531a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_5921531a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Persona 3 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_5921531a | |
| Model Scam / int_5921531c | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_5921531c | comment |
One of the Mementos targets in Persona 5 has been doing the sexual extortion variant on wannabe idols. | |
| Model Scam / int_5921531c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_5921531c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Persona 5 (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_5921531c | |
| Model Scam / int_5ff1fb09 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_5ff1fb09 | comment |
This happens to Zoe in Saving Zoë, twice and she falls for it. Her friend's sleazy boyfriend claims that he will help her become an actress, and forces them to act in a porno. The second "photographer" actually approaches her on MySpace, and she goes to the man's house and is brutally murdered before the book starts. | |
| Model Scam / int_5ff1fb09 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_5ff1fb09 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Saving Zoë | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_5ff1fb09 | |
| Model Scam / int_64494e71 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_64494e71 | comment |
Walker, Texas Ranger: Part of the prologue of the Season 4 finale, "Hall of Fame", where a serial killer would entice his victims this way. That serial killer being That One Case that ultimately retired C.D. Season 7's "livegirls.now" detailed Trivette's new girlfriend being kidnapped by a gang of sex slave traders after one of her photo shoots, and he and Walker had to rescue her before she was auctioned off. |
|
| Model Scam / int_64494e71 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_64494e71 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Walker, Texas Ranger | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_64494e71 | |
| Model Scam / int_6a907c1a | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_6a907c1a | comment |
Photo Finish in Anchor Foal is a cross between this and Sleazy Photoshoot, in that Finish is an actual fashion photographer but she premeditatedly uses a combination of fine print and emotional abuse to get out of paying her victims. Also, she teaches her victims a characteristic Supermodel Strut that Fleur thinks is stupid-looking. | |
| Model Scam / int_6a907c1a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_6a907c1a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Anchor Foal (Fanfic) | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_6a907c1a | |
| Model Scam / int_6ce0d19c | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_6ce0d19c | comment |
In the Quantum Leap episode "Miss Deep South", an unscrupulous photographer talks a beauty pageant contestant into a "tasteful" photo shoot by promising that he can get her modeling work. Then he gets her drunk and persuades her to take off more clothing, reassuring, "I won't shoot anything that will embarrass you." The photos show up in a nudie calendar a few months later, ruining the girl's career (unless Sam can stop it from happening). | |
| Model Scam / int_6ce0d19c | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_6ce0d19c | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Quantum Leap | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_6ce0d19c | |
| Model Scam / int_6f57482a | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_6f57482a | comment |
Scoundrels (2010): Heather's Smooth-Talking Talent Agent is not only scamming her for money but when she confronts him, attempts to rape her by Slipping a Mickey on her drink. But she sees it coming and switches the drinks without him noticing. Then she undresses him, leaves him Chained to a Bed and robs him. | |
| Model Scam / int_6f57482a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_6f57482a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Scoundrels (2010) | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_6f57482a | |
| Model Scam / int_7386b72a | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_7386b72a | comment |
This is the method used in the opening of the anti-trafficking film Sound of Freedom. Giselle, a former beauty queen from Colombia, poses as a talent scout and offers several Honduran children a chance at careers in entertainment. She loosens their hair, undoes buttons and adds bright lipstick, all the while encouraging the kids to strike increasingly suggestive poses. The scam ends with all the children being kidnapped, taken back to Colombia and sold into sex slavery. | |
| Model Scam / int_7386b72a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_7386b72a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Sound of Freedom | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_7386b72a | |
| Model Scam / int_7dff57a9 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_7dff57a9 | comment |
The Girl in Gold Boots: Buz claims he can get Michele a career as a dancer. The fact that Michele wants to get away from her father is what ultimately convinces her to go with Buz. Surprisingly, Buz is being completely honest with Michele, but she eventually finds out that her new employers are mobsters (and the venue is a seedy go-go club). | |
| Model Scam / int_7dff57a9 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_7dff57a9 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Girl in Gold Boots | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_7dff57a9 | |
| Model Scam / int_88ded223 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_88ded223 | comment |
The "Debut Scam" arc from Kurosagi deals with this. A fraudulent entertainment production company goes around picking up girls and offering them model jobs, then trick them into taking loans to buy expensive accessories for gigs that only pay a small fraction of the loan's amount. | |
| Model Scam / int_88ded223 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_88ded223 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Kurosagi (Manga) | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_88ded223 | |
| Model Scam / int_8d7e8d3a | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_8d7e8d3a | comment |
Fame. Coco is approached in a diner by a sleazy guy claiming to be a director. She goes to his apartment for a "screen test" and he orders her to undress in front of a camera. She does so, and starts crying from embarrassment and shame. | |
| Model Scam / int_8d7e8d3a | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_8d7e8d3a | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Fame | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_8d7e8d3a | |
| Model Scam / int_8df5521b | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_8df5521b | comment |
Parodied in Superman: Metropolis Secret Files & Origins: Jimmy Olsen, of all people, tries this on Lex Luthor's Amazonian bodyguards when he meets them in the Planet's elevator. The next panel shows them exiting the elevator, leaving a semiconcious Jimmy behind them. | |
| Model Scam / int_8df5521b | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_8df5521b | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Superman (Comic Book) | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_8df5521b | |
| Model Scam / int_8e09ebf | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_8e09ebf | comment |
Power Rangers Ninja Storm: G-rated version in "Beauty and the Beach", when Marah and Kapri invite Tori to a photoshoot for a fake sports magazine in order to trap her and replace her with an evil duplicate. | |
| Model Scam / int_8e09ebf | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_8e09ebf | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Power Rangers Ninja Storm | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_8e09ebf | |
| Model Scam / int_946f58c1 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_946f58c1 | comment |
An episode of All Grown Up! has Suzie meet a woman who offers her a chance to audition to be a singer. The only catch is, she has to pay a fee for a studio session in advance. When she shows up to the "studio" it turns out just to be an office building. | |
| Model Scam / int_946f58c1 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_946f58c1 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| All Grown Up! | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_946f58c1 | |
| Model Scam / int_a9ad40a8 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_a9ad40a8 | comment |
In the series The Commish, there is an actual professional photographer who works for a couple of questionable papers which require shots of underage (though not child: ages 14-18) models. What many find too late: he also works for a child porn ring. The girl who used to babysit the Commissioner's son is among the victims... | |
| Model Scam / int_a9ad40a8 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_a9ad40a8 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| The Commish | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_a9ad40a8 | |
| Model Scam / int_abc0fb50 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_abc0fb50 | comment |
This is a storylet in Alter Ego (1986). | |
| Model Scam / int_abc0fb50 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_abc0fb50 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Alter Ego (1986) (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_abc0fb50 | |
| Model Scam / int_b05d40f | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_b05d40f | comment |
Occurs in an episode of Sister, Sister, when one of the girls goes to a "photographer's" apartment for a shoot. Luckily, the girls' parents arrive in time to save her. | |
| Model Scam / int_b05d40f | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_b05d40f | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Sister, Sister | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_b05d40f | |
| Model Scam / int_b6f0e9c4 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_b6f0e9c4 | comment |
A man on the streets of Betancuria offers to pay the Princess to pose for a nude painting in A Dance with Rogues. Should you accept, the bad guys show up and confiscate the painting, forcing you to sneak into their administration building to retrieve it. | |
| Model Scam / int_b6f0e9c4 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_b6f0e9c4 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| A Dance with Rogues (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_b6f0e9c4 | |
| Model Scam / int_ccf875f7 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_ccf875f7 | comment |
This was the tactic of the killer in the Criminal Minds episode "Fear and Loathing." Although he doesn't rape his victims. He records their voices as trophies and kills them by drugging and strangling them. | |
| Model Scam / int_ccf875f7 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_ccf875f7 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Criminal Minds | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_ccf875f7 | |
| Model Scam / int_d59887ee | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_d59887ee | comment |
An episode of Beverly Hills, 90210 had Sophie fall prey to the "coerced into nudity" variant, the photographer played by a charmingly loathsome Robin Atkin Downes. | |
| Model Scam / int_d59887ee | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_d59887ee | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Beverly Hills, 90210 | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_d59887ee | |
| Model Scam / int_e6791fdb | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_e6791fdb | comment |
In Dracula's Daughter, the (ambiguously) Lesbian Vampire invites a pretty young girl to model for a portrait and then attacks her. | |
| Model Scam / int_e6791fdb | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_e6791fdb | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Dracula's Daughter | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_e6791fdb | |
| Model Scam / int_f6da9a18 | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_f6da9a18 | comment |
In one chapter of Sgt. Frog, Tamama tries to discredit Angol Mois by posing as a sleazy camera man (with the help of a robotic exoskeleton) and telling her that she can become more "mature" by doing a photo shoot. | |
| Model Scam / int_f6da9a18 | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_f6da9a18 | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Sgt. Frog (Manga) | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_f6da9a18 | |
| Model Scam / int_faf84cd | type |
Model Scam | |
| Model Scam / int_faf84cd | comment |
In Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, your character is offered a job via someone else's phone as a model for a prosthetic maker in LA. His "studio" is in basement of another building, and filled with cages, containing other "models", most with missing limbs. | |
| Model Scam / int_faf84cd | featureApplicability |
1.0 | |
| Model Scam / int_faf84cd | featureConfidence |
1.0 | |
| Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines (Video Game) | hasFeature |
Model Scam / int_faf84cd |
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