PUBLISHED ONJuly 08, 2024 4:45 AMByKhoo Yi-HangQuality art demands a high price - but this TikToker has expressed doubts that what she was recruited to model for is really art to begin with.
A woman in Singapore has put up a warning on TikTok after she received an email inviting her to model for a sexually suggestive photoshoot, she said in a video uploaded to her TikTok on July 2.
Lai Yi Jing, 21, was contacted by an email address under the name of Gavin Choo, who claimed to be a freelance photographer working on a "unique project" that required the use of models.
"He was offering a compensation of $8,000 - indoor shoot, two hours, and it's a clothed shoot," the junior designer said in her video.
At that point, she felt it sounded too good to be true and reached out to Choo out of curiosity.
She requested for Choo's portfolio which he did not provide, but in his reply he revealed that his photoshoot would be sexually themed.
As someone who respects art, however, Lai also humoured the photographer and continued to consider the details of the shoot, letting Choo know about her interest.
That was when Choo responded by upping the ante - he told Lai that remuneration would be paid in full before the shoot, ranging up to $12,000 for the two-hour shoot.
Shocked by the increase in payment, Lai then read more about the shoot and found out that the model has to be wearing a crop top and tennis skirt.
And then it would involve men performing a sexual act.
"He told me that this shoot would involve 50 men, and to avoid it being overwhelming, five men will come into the studio [at a time] and the model will just have to sit there and pose."
Visibly irked by the shoot, Lai then put out her warning to women out there - should they receive an email from Choo or anyone else asking for participation in a similar photoshoot, they ought to think twice.
"If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is," she said.
After uploading the video to TikTok, Lai told Today that she had blocked Choo's number and declined to participate in the shoot.
"These things are expected to happen because there are a lot of weird people out there," she said, adding that she felt "disgusted" that she - and other women - had to go through this ordeal.
She also told Today that she has not made a police report because she believed it would be futile since the police could only provide a warning to the man.
However, Lai still hoped that the police would look into the matter to clarify if this party that reached out to her is the same as the one that sent similar messages to other women in the past.
She added: "We never know if his next victim would actually fall for it, and who knows what would happen (then)?"
AsiaOne has reached out to Lai for more information.
Lai isn't the first to receive such a proposition - in the comments section of her post, many users also reported having received an invitation to a similar shoot.
"Bro, same thing happened to me," one user said.
Another commented: "I had this exact same email - the moment you said 50 men [I recalled it]. But mine was via Telegram."
Other users also shared their own encounters with shady photoshoots: "One time this photographer asked me to do a shoot in a hotel room alone but it was too sketchy so I turned down."
In 2021, TikToker Valerie Tan also uploaded a post to the platform informing users of a similar incident.
A man had offered her $9,000 for a three-hour photoshoot via Instagram message, which stated that the photographer was looking for a model for a concept involving the "juxtaposition of sperm with the beauty of the female form".
"At first I thought it was just a weird photoshoot proposal and shared it as it was funny," she told AsiaOne.
However, she realised it was "more dangerous than it seemed" after almost 10 women commented and messaged her of similar solicitations.
"This is not actually a photoshoot. This guy is inviting you to do, like, porn," Tan said in the video.
Under the Undesirable Publications Act, if a person takes obscene photographs in order to supply or distribute them to others, he or she can be fined up to $2,000 and/or jailed for up to two years.
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