Because of my granddaughter's interested in modeling she found Model Search America (MSA) that advertised model conventions and the opportunity to meet with modeling agencies. We called the Miami BBB to check on the MSA record and were informed they had a B rating, without any complaints. My granddaughter was accepted to participate in their advertised event in Las Vegas in August. Most contact with them was via email. Only twice did a real person answer the phone, in December. The second time was to accept the payment of $2,200.00 with my credit card. The payment included hotel, food, and all modeling related events for the participant and her chaperon. I called MSA several times in the first months of 2008 and sent emails to follow up on event details but nobody answered. I finally called the hotel in Las Vegas where the event was to take place, Bally's, to request room reservation details and I was informed that all reservations for that event were cancelled.
I have not been able to reach anyone at MSA via phone nor email to get a refund. On top of the $2,200.00 MSA defrauded me of, I ended up going to Las Vegas to use the 2 airline tickets I already had, and paying hotel and food.
If anyone has the same experience and has information on how to recover my money from MSA please contact me via this post. I have done some research and found that there are many complaints against MSA and many other modeling agencies. There are also reports on the way BBBs add clients to their lists! That call to Miami BBB was sure a waste of time since their clients PAY to be on their lists.
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