This paper is concerned with the direct and inverse time-harmonic electromagnetic scattering problems for a finite number of isotropic point-like obstacles in three dimensions. In the first part, we show that the representation of scattered fields obtained using the Foldy physical assumption on the proportionality of the strength of the scattered wave on a given scatterer to the external field on it is the same as the one derived from the model corresponding to the scattering by Dirac-like refraction indices. Using the regularization approach known in quantum mechanics, we rigorously deduce the solution operator (Green's tensor) of the last model in appropriate weighted spaces. Intermediate levels of the scattering between the Born and Fold models are also described. In the second part, we apply the MUSIC algorithm to the inverse problem of detecting both the position of point-like scatterers and the scattering coefficients attached to them from the far-field measurements of finitely many incident plane waves, with an emphasis on discussing the effect of multiple scattering. © 2014 World Scientific Publishing Company.