In our modern day and age scams are becoming more and more tricky. Scammers, like "Zoomi" (nickname) the director of Moro Model and Talent Management Inc, look to the grey area of the law to take purposeful advantage of people. Here is what to look for with this company as a sign of a scam:
(1) No employee in the company has a business card with their full name and title on it (ask for one!)
(2) When you meet employees of the firm they will only give you their first name and the director won't even give you that, he will only give you a nickname he made up for himself "Zoomi".
(3) No where on their website is a full name of an employee mentioned, not even the owner.
(4) Any legal contract signed by two parties must be signed using their full names. The director signs with "Zoomi", this means the contract is not legal.
(5) When you meet with Zoomi he may tell you that there are some rip off reports against him, but he will be quick to tell you that they are groundless and simply unhappy people who didn't make the cut and are looking to blame him. He says that there isn't a single report against him of a legitimate type, he specifically names the canadian government. Well, let me tell you that presently there is a file against Moro Model and Talent Management Inc with the Consumer Services Bureau at the Ministry of Consumer Services (cause I filed one).
(6) Moro has an ad in employment newspapers. They thrive on those who are in need of work, putting them into an even worse spot. This is not only pathetic, but it is also illegal as acting and modeling agencies are not allowed to advertise. It should be no surprise that Moro is on ACTRA's NO CHEQUE list - ACTRA is the actors union and any company on their no cheque list is suspect.
(7) As for the grey area that Moro is making use of to scam people of money while the law does nothing. When you sign the contract with Moro, Zoomi will boast that only he offers 2-5 yr contracts (especially the 5yr one). Therein lies the trick. You signing a lengthy contract works to his advantage for a few reasons:
(a) he charges you a 6 month deposit - which he couldn't do if the contract was only a few months to a year. Ofcourse, this 6 month deposit and everything else you pay is non-refundable,
(b) in the contract it states that if you violate the contract he will charge you $2500. Though it doesn't get into what constitutes a "violation of the contract". Now if you are paying him around $1200/yr to represent you, you expect there to be some work done for that amount, something tangible you can see that your money went to good use. Your $1200 per year (remember you signed a 2 yr contract so its going to cost you minimum $2400 in total) gets you, in Zoomi's own words, submitted to about 20 pieces of work, whether it be modeling or acting. It may take them 5-10 minutes to submit you for each piece of work. Let's give Moro the benefit of the doubt and say that it takes 1 hour to submit you to 1 piece of work. This means that they put in 20 hours of work per year for you and charge you $1200. Legal robbery if you ask me. Especially since he hires students and pays them small wages and simply shows them how to use the computer system to submit you for work, a monkey could do it.
Advice for those who have already paid and are only reading this after the fact:
(1) You can still get your money back as long as it is within 10 business days of the date you signed the contract. According to the Consumer Protection Act you can get your money back from signing any contract within 10 business days, it is called the "10 day cooling off provision" of the Consumer Protection Act.
(2) Contact Artist's Legal Advice Services (ALAS) and they will hear out your case and help you free of charge (most of the time) and simply take a cut if they win. They are open only a few hours I believe, Tuesdays and Thursdays, as they are a non-profit organization.
(3) Even if you are past 10 days of signing the contract and ALAS has done everything they can for you, you can still join a growing group of individuals who make petitions, contact government officials, and keep an eye on many companies who are purposefully taking advantage of people through the grey area of the law. There is a specific group formed with the sole intention of keeping an eye on Moro as they have scammed to many people and been around for too long. You can email them at. Email them your situation/case, they will speak to you and work with you in any way they can to help you get your money back, help you with knowledge on how to go to small claims court, and other ways.
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