Submitted:
Thursday, August 07, 2008
Posted: Thursday, August 07, 2008
Fort Wayne,
Indiana
About 10 months ago I was contacted by Model Search America and I had a 30 minute interview with them over the phone. Eventually I was "selected" by them to go to Vegas for this modeling convention and I had to pay a non-refundable amount of money which was almost $1500. This did not even include my flight to Vegas. When I got to Vegas the hotel manager told me that Model Search America has cancelled the show. I was not the only one there for this convention and the other people didn't know either.
I then obviously went online to find phone numbers of the company and tried to get in contact with them through phone or email but they never replied to emails and all their phone lines were either not working or the mailboxes were full. I started doing some research on the internet and saw that this is not the first time that this company has done this exact thing. They do many other unethical things too. The phone number I provided says that you can elave a message but then says that the mailbox is full and like I said they do not reply to emails.
The address where the company is supposedly located is the one that I entered in the above fields; however I was also able to locate the address from where the Model Search America website is being run which should also be one of their offices. I found it using Google Earth so it is not an exact address but it is pretty accurate: it is on 5th avenue between 35th and 34th street in New York City. I know this sounds not helpful at all but this is a small area so someone should be able to find it there. The IP address of the server for their website is: 209.166.208.19.
I know I am not the only one that this company has done this to so I ask all of you that have been victims of this scam to please take some action against this company. We will not only do it for our benefit but also remember how many people we will save from losing their money. If anyone else is willing to do this please contact me. I will use all the help I can get and will help where I can when I can.
I am not from America and thus do not know how lawyers or the police might help with something like this. I think it is possible for me to get a bank statement to show that they took the money from my account but never gave it back. If someone has any information please let me know and let's try to fight this company together and stop them from doing this to other people to.
Thank you
Hermann
Hekjustice
Fort Wayne, Indiana