My friends and I were scammed by a seasoned con artist who “works” in the field of photography. His name is Darien Small, but now that he’s wanted in several states, he has changed his name various times, usually to derisions of his actual name. He’s been known to go by “Dare Small”, “Darien C. Small”, “Craig Small” and a host of others.

First let me tell you how the scam works, so you can avoid him at all cost. He creates a new website and names it something like “Sports Story” or “Wedding Story” or something similar, then starts surfing the web in the city/state he’s currently scamming for forums where he can offer his services as a wedding or sports event photographer. He promises low prices for an obnoxious number of digital photos and tells you he can work alone or hire several photographers and videographers to work with him, somehow at the same low price. If the deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is. He asks for the payment up front by credit card over the phone or over the Internet via his scam website. Once you pay it, he could disappear, but sometimes he’ll actually hire the other photographers and complete the job. If he does complete the job, he uploads the photos to his site under a private page for you and your friends to view and purchase copies. Then, he promises for weeks on end to mail you your photos but never does.

I bought wedding photos of my friends and never received them. They of course paid him to do the whole wedding and never got photo one from him. He also stiffed the extra photographers who worked for him under contract. No one from that wedding party who bought photos online from Darien Small received any. He made over $5, 000.00 off my friend’s wedding and her guests, then took down his website, uploaded another one, and kept working the Atlanta area… that is, until I called Channel 2 Action news and got the story on the evening news two nights in a row, then took out a criminal arrest warrant for him. I even worked with the webmaster of www.stopdariensmall.com (decommissioned) to get an FBI file opened on Darien Small, however, you have to prove that at least $1, 000, 000 of services or money is stolen before the FBI will arrest a con artist.

Since, Dare, Darien, Craig, whatever his name may be now, has moved on to scam other areas. I have found reports in Florida, Maryland, New York, San Francisco, Michigan, Illinois, etc. of a man with one of those names fitting his description and M.O. scamming photographers, sporting events (even a homeschooling program), and brides the exact same way. He has raked in hundreds of thousands of dollars from innocent people who just wanted pictures of their special days. He has been in the news as a scam artist in Atlanta, Michigan and Florida for sure, and I believe in the newspapers in Chicago.

Here’s how you can avoid Darien Small and his wedding photography/sports photography scam:

1) He’s approximately 5′11″, African American, skinny build, older (mid 50s is my guess), usually with facial hair, and wears glasses. When he gets flustered, he speaks with a stutter. He’s extremely soft spoken.

2) He does not ever have an office or a physical address where you can reach him, so if he meets with you, he will insist on coming to your house or meeting at a public place like a restaurant.

3) His website will be less than two months old – do your research on this fact!

4) His cell phone number will usually be a long distance one – leftover from the last town he just scammed.

5) He drives an older car, can never afford anything nice or new I suppose because he has to pay in cash for his vehicles to stay under the radar, and will still insist you drive him around to the wedding or sports photography site as he has no valid license in any state and cannot register for one or else he’ll be arrested.

6) He will probably tell you he does a lot of photography work in Spain. Whether that is true or not is irrelevant, he just seems to find it as a point of pride to tell people he works overseas.

7) He will not be able to produce any actual references, only photos of his past work.

8) He has a “special package” deal that he calls either “Wedding Storybooks” or “Sports Storybooks” – these are key words that he uses to get you to buy higher priced packages of photos that he never plans to deliver.

9) One or two days before the event he may call you and ask you to buy him something he can’t be without … this is a strange thing but it’s happened time and time again… He’ll say things like “I just broke my main flash and don’t have the funds up front to buy another one before your event. You need to buy it for me and I’ll take it off the price of my services later.” Of course, he never takes it off the price of his services.

10) He will insist on up-front payment – not a deposit – but the whole thing. He may accept a deposit if you push him hard enough, cause some money is better than no money, but he’ll most likely use your credit card to purchase items for himself or his “business” to get the rest of the money he wants out of you.

The worst part about this I think is that every time he has to move because the heat is turned up and he’s about to carted off to jail, he uproots his entire family and brings them with him to a new town. One of his children (of three, I believe) has a severe and fatal syndrome. This child needs constant medical care and needs stability more than any normal child – but Darien doesn’t care, just as long as he can keep scamming people out of their money he’ll keep putting this poor child’s health at risk.

I was furious when I was scammed and found out there was next to nothing I could do. Through a private party I was able to obtain an address for Darien to get a warrant served on him. Unfortunately, it was a phony address. Of course, at the address where he was really living, his landlord saw our newscast about him in Atlanta and called the news to tell them that Darien was three months behind on rent and wouldn’t get out of his rental home. As soon as that newscast aired, Darien, his wife, and his children (including the severely ill child) disappeared without a trace with everyone’s money. The landlord never got his back rent. The police never were able to serve him my criminal arrest warrant. He never had to pay me or my friends back anything. He got away scott-free.

Darien Small has apparently been running this scam for nearly 16 years. He was recently arrested in Maryland for charges of credit card fraud and writing a host of bad checks, but was released with bail and a fine. He’s still scamming to this very day.

Beware of Dare! Tell your friends and look out for him in your hometown. If you encounter him or one of his scam sites, tell police. They will probably already know who he is and won’t do much, but they can at least pay him a visit and tell him that they know he’s working the area.