Photo studio's name used in attempt to lure teen girls to Winnipeg for nude photos
The Winnipeg Police Service is investigating two child luring attempts after a man solicited nude photos from teenage girls using the name of a nude art photography studio.
"My fear always runs to the fact the Grey Cup weekend is coming and that it's possible that girls are being lured here to be used in the sex trafficking industry here," said Rodney Braun of Eve Studios, which specializes in nude and art photography for women.
The college professor co-owns the studio with his wife, and the pair got an unusual email Thursday night from a young woman in Saskatchewan concerned about her friend.
The woman told him a friend had been contacted on Facebook by a man named Michael Chang.
The man said he was with Eve Studios and wanted her friend to send him three nude photographs. He would then fly her to Winnipeg and put her up in a hotel.
The friend was worried because the girl was only 15.
"I actually thought it was a prank, but I did some research on it and emailed back saying our studio doesn't do that. It wasn't us. We don't have a Mike Chang working for us and we'll pass the matter on to police," said Braun.
The next morning, he got a phone call from another concerned friend, this one in Ontario.
She said she wanted to know why the company was putting up a 16-year-old girl in a hotel for three weeks for a calendar shoot.
'I said, 'Well wait a sec. No one's booked into the studio. We're not flying anybody in, and we don't book people into hotels,'" said Braun.
Eve Studios doesn't shoot anyone under 18 or solicit models for shoots.
Winnipeg police confirmed their internet child exploitation unit is investigating. As of Monday, there were no arrests in the case.
Police, CyberTip.ca notified
Braun told her to tell her friend not to come and contacted police as well as CyberTip.ca, a Canadian tipline to report the online sexual exploitation of children.
Braun is worried the girls were being lured to Winnipeg to be trafficked.
"You hear about this stuff happening in Europe, but you just kind of don't think it ever happens here," he said. "I have a niece who's 15, and I have a young daughter, and I think, my goodness, what if somebody was trying to lure them?"
Both girls in the luring incidents had been contacted via Facebook.
Braun has since talked to other people in the photography business in Winnipeg, but so far he hasn't heard of other similar incidents.
"There may be others that were contacted and were planning to come to Winnipeg and just haven't told anybody," he said. "If you've got a daughter or a niece or somebody in that age range, this is a good time to talk to them about the possibility of trafficking and what happens. The device in front of you is more dangerous than you think it is."
Eve Studios now has a disclaimer on its Facebook page that says, "If you have been contacted by 'Eve Studios' and invited to do photos and be put up in a hotel etc. DO NOT do it. It's not us and it's not safe."
Braun said that if people are using the name of his photography studio, they could be using other local companies as a front to fly in young women as well.
"The first thing that goes through your mind is, 'Oh this is our business. This is going to kill us.' But the second thing, which is far more important, is, you know, there are girls out there that could be contacted in a way that would follow their dreams," he said. "My concern is that if two people contacted us, how many didn't? How many people just said, 'Hey I'm going to do this. This is my dream, and I'm going to follow it.'"
'Going on all the time'
Signy Arnason, the director of CyberTip.ca, said it's not the first time this has happened in Canada.
"It's the first one we've received relative to Winnipeg, but we've received them from other jurisdictions in Canada where a legitimate business, their information is being misused in that capacity, and in many instances, it's with an attempt to lure or exploit teens," said Arnason. "This is going on all the time, so the idea of exploiting children, exploiting youth is not a new phenomenon.… This is a new angle of going at it."
Arnason said that anyone who has been contacted with a similar offer should report it to CyberTip.ca or local police.
"We know that teens are vulnerable, and if they're not disclosing to someone else — take it at face value — there is the potential they could be harmed, so the goal is to get this kind of story out there, so that we prompt parents to have good discussions with their teenagers about some of these risks," she said.
