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Posted by: Tricia Wilds (68.56.129.186) on February 20, 2002 at 17:17:09
Location: Florida
For those who have posted about this here is the full story, n channel 9 news here in Florida...
Modeling Co. Uses Glamour To Cheat Consumers (02/14/02) -- A local modeling company offering big bucks modeling careers could be taking local consumers for the ride of their lives. Action 9's Consumer Investigative Reporter, Todd Ulrich found this company using glamour and gimmicks to cheat consumers out of hundreds of dollars. Watch Channel 9 Eyewitness News at 6 for the full report. It starts with "open call night." Here, teenagers and even some adults audition at a company called e-Model. Though based in Orlando, the company boasts of branches throughout the country and an internet site accessed by modeling agencies around the world. And lots of exposure means lots of jobs. That's, at least, what Brian Golat believed. "I had the look, I had the physical features that fit their criteria," Golat told Action 9. Golat had been approached by an e-Model talent scout who wanted to put his face on their website, a national site where "elite" modeling agencies would spot his good looks and offer him a very attractive modeling contract. When Golat came to an open call night, like the one Action 9 attended with our hidden cameras, he heard about the $400 fee plus 20 bucks a month. Brian wanted to take time to think it over, but he was told: "I've got 10 or more people behind you that this is their dream to become a model , and it's one of those things that you have to sign it now or forget about it," Brian recalls. So he signed and paid that night. A desperate act that an e-Model ex-employee told Action 9 happens a lot. "We'd throw crap at them until they get really excited and say, yeah that is something I want to do," the former employee told Action 9. Now embarrased to show her face, she says there were no real standards or auditions. Anybody with $400 was put on the website. "It makes me want to cry, to think of all those innocent people that were sucked in because they trusted me," she confessed to Action 9. She says e-Model's sales team is managed by Ralph Bell. And Action 9 found he's a man with a past, a modeling ripoff in another state. Action 9's Todd Ulrich, caught up with Bell to ask a few questions about e-Model. "I don't know anything about it," Bell responded. In our investigation, we discovered the Federal Trade Commission says Bell used deceptive tactics to sign up models in Virginia, and he was banned from using casting calls to sell products. Our investigation found e-Model "open call nights" were used to trick candidates into thinking they had passed a selective screening process, then pressured to sign and pay 400 bucks. Even the two models sent to us by e-Model thought they had "won" the right to be on the website. "He says you're very photogenic, so you pretty much made the cut, on the first try which most people don't," Vivian Ngyen told Action 9. She and Katie Enlow are pleased they joined e-Model. Katie has since signed with a Miami modeling agency. When Action 9 Reporter Todd Ulrich asked if she thought there was paid work down the road for her, Katie replied, "Oh definitely. I think my career is just now coming together." But that's not the case for Brian Golat. He never got one single call. And he, like dozens of others who complained to the Better Business Bureau feel they're the victims of a modeling hustle. "They're just taking people's money, putting them on this site, and leaving them there," he told us. E-Model responded to Action 9 in writing. In one letter, Ralph Bell is called a consultant, yet in another the company say's he just shooting a documentary at their office. E-Model states it does have modeling standards that recruits must pass to get on the website. But in that same letter, there' s this quote, E-Model simply acts as a posting board, which allows anyone to pay for posting" and end up on the website. And that's why many victims who went to "open call night" felt hustled after paying big bucks and not getting jobs. For any consumer, remember, you don't have to pay anyone to get an agent, or a modeling job.
© 2002 WFTV-TV
Story sent to me via Hawaiian Tropic representative, with channel 9 information.