Glasgow schoolgirls '˜groomed on Facebook' by fake model agent

POLICE are investigating after a number of Scottish schoolgirls were asked to send indecent photos to a fake modelling agency scout.

The girls were contacted over Facebook. Picture: Getty Images

The messages, sent over Facebook to girls in the Inverclyde area, were sent from someone claiming to represent the Base Model Management firm.

A profile purporting to belong to a ‘Lisa Banks’, has been sending messages reading: “Hey my name is Lisa and I work for a modeling agency as a modeling scout and we think you have the potential to work in the modeling industry would you be interested in trying out?” [sic]

But one girl became suspicious when the so-called scout asked her to take a photo in an erotic pose.

The person posing as 'Lisa Banks' claimed to be working for Base Model Management. Picture: Contributed

• READ MORE - Classmates ‘shared indecent photos of girl, 12’

The 12-year-old, who had already sent a selfie, alerted her mother after telling the perdson that she was ‘sick’ for asking her to send a photo like that.

The girl’s mother told the Greenock Telegraph: “My daughter was told she had been selected as a potential candidate for a modelling agency and asked to send a picture.

“My daughter sent a selfie but then this ‘woman’ asked her to send another picture. The woman told her that they needed different body shots and different poses.

The person posing as 'Lisa Banks' claimed to be working for Base Model Management. Picture: Contributed

“But my daughter told her ‘no way’ and said she was going to tell her mum and the police. She also blocked the person and deleted her from her page.”

The woman added that she was relieved that her daughter had told her what was happening but added: “I hope that by raising awareness of it that it will stop it happening to someone else.”

Another girl, aged 15, was approached in a similar fashion by ‘Lisa’, but told her mother when requests for a website were ignored.

The second girl’s mother added: “My daughter received a message from a Lisa Banks saying that she was from a modelling agency and that she had potential.

“She asked ‘Lisa’ if she had a website that she could check out but this was ignored and the woman asked how old my daughter was.

• READ MORE - Internet troll jailed after threat to publish photos of boy, 14

“This person just said that they were scouting for models throughout the UK and that she would have to complete the first two stages before they would put her in contact with a local agency closer to home.”

The woman said that she had contacted Base Model Management, who confirmed that no one by the name of Lisa Banks was working for them as a modelling scout.

A Police Scotland spokesperson confirmed that the messages were being probed, adding: “Police Scotland takes online safety very seriously and we would like to remind everyone of the importance of only accepting friend requests from people you know, as well as urging parents to monitor what their children are using the internet for.”

A statement from Base Model Management read: “We would never contact children or even adults in that way and ask for inappropriate photos. Lisa Banks is nobody we are aware of.”