I fell for a photography scam

So because it’s the holiday season and new photographers want to get seen like I did, I always tell my story of how I lost money in a “photography magazine” scam. So being new to the game I started to follow anything and everything photography and something that was popular was photography magazines where you submit your work with a chance to be featured. Well one of them was having contest for a cash prize, cover spot, and you’re own portfolio magazine. For a small fee you can enter the contest and I was so excited. Well time went by and heard nothing, I noticed comments from others saying the same thing, “hey what happened with the contest? Where’s the money? Who won?” When the magazine finally announced a “winner” there was an uproar of angry people who were upset about the owner pocketing the money and giving the winning spot to personal friend. This was also something that happened with an alleged charity event that the same magazine did. They made claims of doing a charity fundraising event and the charity never received the money. I didn’t do my homework and research this editorial (if that’s what you want to call it). Know you don’t need to publish your work for a fee in these magazines to get validation, that if you keep at it you’ll just get better. Stay safe out there my fellow photographers! Make magic happen and know that you got this!