I won a photography award – but it’s a scam

I’ve won an amateur photography contest, sponsored by the International Library of Photography. According to the letter accompanying the award, signed by Russell Hall, Senior Editor,

Congratulations! Out of literally thousands of entries, your photograph, “Jenny,” has been award Second Prize in our International Open Amateur Photography Contest! As one of the editors and judges for this contest, I can truly say that this is an outstanding achievement.

Accompanying the letter was a nice bronze coin, shown here. There was also a “Photographer’s Release Form” that essentially turns all rights to the photograph over to the group.

There were several items that made me suspicious. The most obvious were that I haven’t entered a photography competition in more than 30 years, and I’ve never named a photograph “Jenny.”

Further, the letter was addressed to “Alan James Zeichick,” residing at BZ Media’s New York office address. My middle name isn’t James, and I would never enter a competition like this using the corporate address.

According to some Internet threads, if I sent in the release form, I’d then receive an offer to sell me an expensive copy of a book containing my award-winning photograph. That’s part of the scam. Here’s a link to a warning about it. If you get one of these, just ignore it. Keep the coin, though, it’s nice.