Deceptive modeling ads target Colorado Springs teens

We have a warning for parents about enticing ads on Craigslist offering up lucrative ‘modeling gigs’ for teenage girls in Colorado Springs.

The offer is almost too good to be true: $500 to $1,000 for just one photoshoot.

“I can make you a model, they would say,” said Kristina Ellis, the aunt of teenage girls who found the ads online.

Easy money, right?

“She was thinking a new car new clothes,” Ellis said. “They actually looked pretty legitimate at first.”

The ads specifically target teens located in Colorado Springs.

“There was so much excitement… these girls thought they were going to have a modeling career,” Ellis said.

But the message indicated there was no modeling studio; the job would be facilitated inside a random home.

“It read, ‘Come to my house, it’s green, with a white picket fence and a dog,'” she said. “So the girls thought it must be safe.”

According to Ellis, in order to qualify for the photoshoot, the girls had to send photos via email.

“It started out as headshots, but then they wanted pictures of them in their bikini, and it went on,” she said.

Most of the listings may look legitimate and local because of a map that’s attached in the post.

“It won’t be until after the girls send photos …the conversation gets really inappropriate and they realize what the actual job is…,” Ellis said.

Det. Jon Price with the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office explained it’s not uncommon for the pictures or information to be shared in other places or even sold.

“No matter how hard you try your information is going to be accessible to whatever bad actors want to get ahold of it,” Price said.

Keep in mind, many of the listings are re-posted every week to give a false sense of legitimacy an urgent response is required.

Report a scam?

Email me at Stephanie.Sierra@KRDO.com