Jason Wallace also known as Jason Hoffman top exec at TC Talent here is a story of his past running the same scam, stealing money from would be models only to crush their dreams.
"Some Hopefuls Say They Learned an Ugly Lesson"
Kenneth Bredemeier
Washington Post Staff Writer
April 11,1999; Page H1
College freshman Jamie Bolger remembers the moment last fall: She was working at her part-time job filling doughnuts at a Giant Food store in Fredericksburg, Va., when a woman approached her with an intriguing question.
"Excuse me, are you a model?" the woman asked. "You've
got beautiful eyes. Have you ever thought of modeling? You could be in commercials."
In an instant, the woman, who said her name was Nadia, whipped out a cellular phone and booked Bolger for an appointment at Model 1, a storefront modeling school in Tysons Corner.
Bolger went there a few days later, listened to the sales rep's pitch that modeling was "a good way to earn extra money" and browsed through Model 1's handouts touting a vast array of 1990s movies and commercials for which it
says it had placed actors and models, even though Model 1 only opened for business last June 8.
Bolger said she thought nothing of it when she was told Model 1 would need a down payment for the training for "two twenty-five."
As Bolger, awash in dreams of a lucrative modeling contract, recalled, "I thought it was for $2.25."
As she realized later, she had signed a $225 charge slip on her mother's credit card as a down payment for eight model training classes that would have cost an additional $1,450.
Reality soon set in on the trip back to Fredericksburg, however, and Jamie Bolger acknowledged to herself: "I look like a normal person. I look very average."
She wanted out of the contract, but Model 1 at first balked at a refund. Eventually the agency sent her a $26 check and claimed the remaining $199 was nonrefundable because it covered the cost of the short videotape it
had made of Jamie. MasterCard later took the disputed $199 off the credit card pending a resolution of the dispute.
"Only by the grace of God did we get out this, " said Cheryl Todd, Jamie's mother. "She's a smart kid, but not business-savvy."
Fairfax County consumer affairs investigators and officials at the Better Business Bureau of Metropolitan Washington say they have received numerous complaints about Model 1 Inc.'s tactics. The BBB has received more
than 4,000 inquiries about the firm's aggressive, on-the-street recruitment by "model scouts" who make flattering remarks about how handsome or beautiful passersby
look. Such appeals to one's vanity prove to be pitches that many find irresistible.
And once such would-be models schedule an appointment at Model 1's office at 8150 Leesburg Pike, some have complained that they encounter heavy-handed and
deceptive sales pitches about how much they could make as a model and the types of jobs that Model 1 trainees have been able to get.in addition, some of those who have protested say the firm's representatives have misled them about their ability to get out of credit card contracts if they change their minds about taking the model training.
"Our file experience shows that this company has an unsatisfactory business performance record with the bureau due to its failure to substantiate its advertising and promotional claims, and its failure to respond to some complaints brought to its attention by the bureau, " the BBB says in its current report on the firm.
"They're up to no good, " said Edward J. Johnson III,
president of the regional BBB. "They use high-pressure sale tactics and engage in misrepresentations on getting jobs and on exclusivity—that they only [accept] 10 percent" of the prospective models for their training classes.
"What I see is how blatantly aggressive they are, " Johnson said. Paulette Neas, chief of investigations and licensing for the Fairfax County consumer services office, said: "We are very concerned about the practices of this company. We have some concern that they are are engaging in practices that are misleading. We would feel more comfortable if they just tell people that they sell model training" instead of often leaving the impression with prospects that modeling jobs are in their immediate future. She has referred the matter to the county attorney's office for further investigation.
Sources said the Federal Trade Commission has also gathered information about Model 1's sales tactics, although the agency said it could neither confirm nor
deny that it is probing the firm.
Jason Hoffman, Model 1's president, declined to be interviewed about his firm and its sales tactics and operations. But he staunchly defended it in a letter
to The Washington Post in response to written questions sent to him about the history of the company, its use of model scouts, the hiring of models and the allegations made by customers.
"While I am always searching for ways to eliminate complaints, I am very proud of my company's record, " Hoffman wrote. "An overwhelming majority of Model 1's
customers have told us in their written evaluations that they were very satisfied with the services that they have received from Model 1."
He supplied no names of the satisfied model trainees, as had been requested.
"The allegations described in your letter are isolated
occurences, contrary to Model 1's regular business practices, " he wrote. "Those complaints, even assuming that they are all well-founded, represent only a minuscule percentage of Model 1's business. Accordingly, it would be wrong for you to draw any substantive conclusions about my company from a handful of allegations that are not representative of the way that Model 1 does business."
He said Model 1 "has responded fully and fairly to any
inquiries" it has received from the Fairfax consumer officials. Meanwhile, Hoffman said his firm "has continued to cooperate in good faith with the BBB,
notwithstanding the fact that the BBB has not responded in kind, refusing to play by the same rules by which it expects Model 1 to abide.
"The BBB's lack of accountability to anyone other than itself is appalling, " Hoffman concluded.
The heart of Model 1's recruitment efforts is the cadre of model scouts that Hoffman employs to persuade people—often teenagers, young adults and college students—to set up an appointment at the Tysons office.
Some of the model scouts are recruited through frequent classified ads in The Post, such as the one that ran Jan. 31 with the headline "MY LIFE."
"Hi, My name is Jason. I make my living attending fashion shows, going to plays at the theater, dining out at elegant restaurants, marketing my company's mgmt services to businesses and individuals, and traveling to beautiful places. When others are heading off to their desk jobs, I am socializing with my friends and driving around in my sleek beautiful Acura. I am a model scout for the largest & hottest modeling company in the metro area.
30-40K possible Base Bonus or commission."
In The Post letter, Hoffman was asked how the company uses model scouts, how they are trained, who they are instructed to recruit, what they are told to tell prospective customers, how they are paid and how much.
Hoffman, in his letter, did not respond to a number of the questions, writing instead, "Model 1's talent scouts are provided with scheduled training. The training and compensation of Model 1's scouts [and Model 1's employees] is proprietary."
One former talent scout, who declined to be identified for fear of retaliation from the firm, said the talent scouts were told by their trainers, "We want you to talk to 10 people an hour." But the scout said, "There's not
necessarily going to be 10 quality model people you see in an hour."
The goal, the 21-year-old former scout said, was to set up 125 appointments a week. "There are people who do it, " he said. "My highest was 60, and I admit, not with a 100 percent effort."
But the scout, who worked at Model 1 for nearly a month before quitting recently, said that when he wasn't getting enough people to agree to appointments, a manager told him: "Look, your numbers are horrible. I don't care what these people look like, get people in here. Talk to anybody and everybody as long as they're not repulsive to you, as long as they don't turn your stomach."
The scout said Model 1 figured that if each scout made 125 appointments each week, 44 of those would actually show up and 28 of those would make deposits on training.
"They paid you $40 per deposit if you got 16 or more deposits per week, but you never knew how many people actually showed up, " as that tally was kept by other staffers, he said. "The idea was to get them in and flatter them."
At one point, the scout, who is white, said he was told by a black manager that he needed to recruit more white people, especially in Montgomery County and Northern Virginia, and to forget recruiting in Prince George's
County because Model 1 needed more affluent customers.
"We need the deposits, " the scout recalled his manager
saying.
The scout said he quit after making just $170.
"I was working crazy hours and had nothing to show for it and wasn't proud of it, " he said.
Numerous people approached by Model 1 talent scouts describe encounters similar to that recounted by the former scout. Typically, they said they were approached at a shopping mall or walking across a campus or some
other public venue.
Phillip Washington, a 17-year-old senior at Kennedy High School in Montgomery County, said he was at a Tower Records store in Rockville in December when a man named Lorenzo walked up to him. "He told me I was something
he was looking for, a young black male, and said I had the look people were looking for in films."
Washington said he'd been handed business cards from modeling agencies in the past and ignored the entreaties but had made up his mind that he would go the next time someone offered him the chance.
He went to Model 1, along with his mother, Andrea Washington, a family psychotherapist with a Baltimore health service. She said a Model 1 sales agent told her, "You're good-looking. You ought to audition, too." Both posed for a handful of photos, which Model 1 described as test shots to see if they would be accepted for training. She gave Model 1 $340 to cover the screening.
She and her son, like other Model 1 prospects, were told to return in a week or two to see if they'd been accepted for training.
"They rejected me, which was cool, " she recalled.
"They said you had to weigh 120 pounds. I don't know anyone who weighs that." But Washington said Phillip
was accepted for training and she signed a contract obligating her to eight $168.75 monthly payments, a total of $1,350.
"I didn't want to pass up an opportunity for my child, " the single mother said. "But sometimes it's hard to make all the decisions by myself. They talk so fast—do this and do that."
Within days, Washington said she and her son had misgivings about Model 1 and after checking with the BBB decided to seek a refund.
"I just wanted out, " she said.
But that proved more difficult than she imagined.
"If they reject you, you were supposed to get a refund, "
she said.
Her son added: "The lady said I could pay off the money while I was working, but instead they deducted it from our checking account." Washington, now out $508.75, lamented, "I didn't take my time. I allowed my
emotion to take over."
Laura Davies, a sophomore nursing student at Georgetown University, said she was approached on campus last fall by a woman who asked her, "Have you ever done any modeling before? You have a great look for what my company
is looking for. She made it sound like she worked for an agency that hired models. I was kind of curious. I didn't walk away. She made it sound very easy to get this job. She said as a model, you'd get $300 to $400 a shoot."
Davies soon went to Model 1 and said she was told, "If we pick you, we'll train you to be a model."
"It was all coming at me at once and I was in there alone, which was very stupid of me. She went over the money, and what I understood was that I could fully get it back and that only one in 100 who applied was accepted."
She signed a credit card slip for $325.
"They did makeup. We went in this back room and [the
photographer] took about four, maybe five shots. She took a video of me, maybe two minutes, and I had to say why I was interested in modeling, something interesting about me and read a tongue twister.
"I had to call them in a week. They were going to meet with the board and they'd tell me if I made it or not. I left. That night I realized this was something I didn't want to do. The next morning I called them and talked to
Jason Hoffman. He's a really good talker, and he said, 'If you don't want to do this now, you can do it later. There's probably not a very good chance you'll make it. Wait a week and you can decide and see what happens.' "
Davies instead called her mother, Judith, in Lake Worth, Fla., who recalled, "She called home crying and said she'd made a mistake."
"I said right away, this is a scam. I said right away, we want out of this, " Judith Davies said.
The end result: Model 1 refunded $126 but said in a letter about the dispute, "We are not going to give you the second portion because Laura signed the contract."
Eventually, Visa removed the remaining charge, but Laura Davies said:
"I'm so scared they're going to put it back on. I learned not to go into situations where I don't know what I'm getting into. They took advantage of me."
Said her mother: "How they got her to do that, I don't know. It was stupid.
It's not that much money. It's more the principle."
Larry Hodapp, the assistant director of the FTC's enforcement division, while not speaking directly about Model 1, said that he has witnessed a variety of questionable sales tactics by modeling agencies across the nation over the past few years.
"It's our experience that some companies may tend to mislead [prospects] on the number of models needed in a particular area, their own suitability to be a model and the efforts to be done on their behalf, " he said.
"People should be realistic about their prospects of doing
something like modeling. Anybody can send their snapshots to an agency, " Hodapp said.
"You can do it on your own. If you're paying a lot of money up front, that's the time to walk. It's mostly good common sense.
"The scams appeal to people's weaknesses, " he concluded.
"They're lured by representations that they'd been specially selected.
"You should ask yourself, 'Why me?' "
`You Could Be a Model'
A modeling scam may be hard to spot because advertising claims and practices of unscrupulous agencies may be similar to those used by legitimate modeling agencies.
Here, however, are some claims that should make you
suspicious:
"No fee." If an agency advertises no fee, be wary any time you are asked to pay. Sometimes a legitimate agency will charge to include your photo in an agency book, but before you pay anything, ask to see a copy of previous books and the list of clients to whom they were distributed. Then check with some of the clients to see whether they have hired any of the company's models.
"Earn high salaries." Only experienced, top models will be paid large amounts.
"Work full or part time." You won't have flexibility to
choose your own hours.
"Real-people types should apply." Modeling opportunities
for "real people" are rare.
Also be careful if agencies use these tactics:
Charge you for their classes before you are eligible for modeling work. An exception may be when a modeling agency also serves as a modeling school — but that is a separate function from finding you work as a model.
Require a particular photographer. Legitimate agencies may recommend a certain photographer, but be wary if they are insistent.
What You Should Do:
Check out all claims made in agency ads, sales presentations and literature.
Ask for names, addresses and phone numbers of models who work through the agency and clients who have used its models. Contact models and clients to verify information.
Keep copies of all important papers such as your contract and agency literature. Be sure to get all oral promises in writing.
If you have paid money to a modeling agency and believe it is involved in a scam:
Contact the company and request a refund.
If you aren't satisfied, register a complaint with your local consumer protection agency, Better Business Bureau and state attorney general's office.
To file a complaint:
Although the Federal Trade Commission cannot resolve individual problems for consumers, it can act against a company if it sees a pattern of possible law violations.
File a complaint with the FTC by contacting the Consumer Response Center by phone at 202-382-4357,202-326-2502 for TDD; by mail at 600 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20580; or the Web using an online complaint form at www.ftc. Gov.
SOURCE: Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Consumer Protection Office of Consumer and Business Education
Employee
orlando, Florida
U.S.A.
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