Complaint Review: Infinite Talent - Emodel - Hillsboro Oregon
- Infinite Talent - Emodel 20811 NW 183rd Ave Hillsboro, Oregon U.S.A.
- Phone: 503-645-0787
- Web:
- Category: Modeling Agencies
Infinite Talent ripoff It's Just ANOTHER Name For Emodel. WSN What Next?!. They keep changing their names over and over. Will they EVER STOP?! A scam is A SCAM! Hillsboro Oregon
*Consumer Comment: Me as well!
*Consumer Comment: Dont LIE
*Consumer Comment: Dont LIE
*Consumer Comment: Dont LIE
*Consumer Suggestion: upset 'model'
*Consumer Suggestion: Not upset enough?
*Consumer Suggestion: Not upset enough?
*Consumer Suggestion: Not upset enough?
*Consumer Suggestion: Not upset enough?
*UPDATE Employee: This Posting Has Come to My Attention
*UPDATE Employee: Not a fraud! LOU PEARLMAN was linked to money losses... MONSTER at fault
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People who live in the Hillsboro Portland Area be on the look out!
Heather Duback, Rachel Skirving and Katie Ludwig is a part of this whole scam. Infinite Talent maybe able to change the name but we are here to let people know just what your company repesents.
VAMS - Wilhelmina Scouting Network - Web Style Network - Trans Continental Talent - Options Talent - Emodel - Edge Talent - Efashionshow.com - Whymodel.com - Whytalent.com - Studio 58 - Industry Magazine - Castnet.com - Monster.com 24/7 Scam Coverage
VAMS Statement for NY CPB Hearing
Regarding Wilhelmina Scouting Network - Web Style Network SCAM
October 21, 2003
Buffalo, NY
Employment fraud -
From a period of the 2000 through 2003, Emodel, Options Talent Group, Trans Continental Talent, Wilhelmina Scouting Network, Edge Talent and Industry Magazine (another franchise scheme) engaged in the largest, most blatant Employment Fraud and labor abuse using the leading Internet job site, Monster.com to post up to 1,200 ads that were refreshed on an almost daily basis to recruit these "talent scouts" for their franchises all over the world.
These "talent scouts' were MISCLASSIFIED as Independent contractors, even though they were clearly doing the job of employees, based upon IRS factor classification tests and even state classification standards.
This was a clear and blatant tax evasion and employment fraud scheme. Over 25,000 people were victims of this employment fraud. We estimate over 175,000 people actually got mislead by these knowingly false ads on Monster.com and wasted an entire day of their time to attend these weekly "training sessions". To top it all off, the vast majority of these scouts were unpaid and were given goals supposedly to make a base salary after a 30-day period.
These goals could never be reached and the scam operators knew that. On a weekly basis these scouts would be churned through, misclassified, trained to defraud with scripts to approach innocent consumers in shopping malls, at college campuses, at clubs and anywhere they could find them.
The Role of Monster.com -
As soon as ads for "Talent Scouts" started appearing on Monster.com when this scam was called Emodel in 2000, hundreds of complaints flooded Monster from people who actually went to these training sessions and saw what a scam they were. Other innocent young job seekers believed the hype and thought if it was on Monster.com it must be legitimate. They found out the hard way. It did not stop there. At that same time, job seekers who had their resume posted on Monster.com at the time of Emodel were constantly bombarded with spam about becoming a talent scout.
Despite hundreds of complaints to Monster.com and their legal department, they choose to do NOTHING. All of these "jobs" were falsely advertised claiming full -time employment when nothing of the sort was ever offered. They also claimed that you could make a huge salary and that they were not sales positions. Both of these are false.
It did not stop there. In 2001 when they operated as Emodel and 2002 when they changed their name for the 6th time to Options Talent and became an Over the Counter Traded Stock under the symbols OTTG, OPTG, the amount of fraudulent ads increased. In Sept 2002, when Lou Pearlman and Greg McDonald took ownership and changed the name to Trans Continental Talent, the fraudulent ads INCREASED to over 1,200 daily.
Consumers and jobs seekers had lodged thousands of complaints to Monster.com and still NOTHING was done. Tens of thousands of innocent job seekers were sucked into this fraud at a blinding pace. To put this in perspective, besides the 60 + franchises operating in the US, the same employment fraud leading to consumer fraud scheme was going on in Australia, China, England, Singapore and Moscow.
Over 100,000 fraudulent ads were posted and refreshed on Monster.com in that time period, ALL FRAUDULENT. This served as the main artery for the fraud to exist at this level. The constant non-payment, misclassification and churning of tens of thousands of people over this period represents one of the largest unchecked abuses and of labor and tax evasion schemes through a mainstream job board in history.
VAMS has all the evidence to show that Monster.com was AWARE of the thousands of complaints and choose to look the other way. They were without doubt complicit and collusive. Monster.com received over $500,000 to ignore, cover-up and brush aside complaints. Monster.com served a major cog in this racketeering operation.
Other fraudulent ads appeared soliciting models for claimed jobs. These jobs NEVER existed, but once again Monster.com was used to lure these job seekers right into the consumer fraud themselves. Monster.com knew this as well.
It did not stop there. One of the franchise scams they ran was something called Industry Magazine. Besides the fake modeling jobs that never existed through Industry Magazine, they listed openings for "Regional Directors" of Industry Magazine. Our inside sources that worked at the company said thousands of resumes were received, many by overnight Fed-Ex from people who thought these were legit jobs.
The truth is that these served as a front to try and get these individuals to buy into franchises for this magazine. This effort was spearheaded ocne again by the Queen of the Franchise Sales fraud, Terri Bears.
Samantha
Bend, Oregon
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Emodel
This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 12/17/2003 05:03 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/infinite-talent-emodel/hillsboro-oregon-97124/infinite-talent-ripoff-its-just-another-name-for-emodel-wsn-what-next-they-keep-chang-75163. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content
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#11 Consumer Comment
Me as well!
AUTHOR: Ashley - (Virgin Islands (US))
SUBMITTED: Friday, December 04, 2009
I wasn't stupid enough to give Heather any money for a "photo shoot" but I did give them a small membership fee to be included in their bank of models to be contacted for jobs. What a HUGE mistake.
#10 Consumer Comment
Dont LIE
AUTHOR: Virginia - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Tuesday, April 11, 2006
I too was personally ripped off by Heather. I think I might have seen lauren at a photoshoot with Ming. She is a beautiful girl and could definately make it in the modeling world. Unfortunately I was victim of Infinite talents scam as well. I will be taking action if I dont get resolution in 2 weeks.
#9 Consumer Comment
Dont LIE
AUTHOR: Virginia - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Tuesday, April 11, 2006
I too was personally ripped off by Heather. I think I might have seen lauren at a photoshoot with Ming. She is a beautiful girl and could definately make it in the modeling world. Unfortunately I was victim of Infinite talents scam as well. I will be taking action if I dont get resolution in 2 weeks.
#8 Consumer Comment
Dont LIE
AUTHOR: Virginia - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Tuesday, April 11, 2006
I too was personally ripped off by Heather. I think I might have seen lauren at a photoshoot with Ming. She is a beautiful girl and could definately make it in the modeling world. Unfortunately I was victim of Infinite talents scam as well. I will be taking action if I dont get resolution in 2 weeks.
#7 Consumer Suggestion
upset 'model'
AUTHOR: Lauren - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Thursday, March 16, 2006
Heather Duback-why did you even bother writing this rebuttal? Infinite Talent is a scam, you know this because you are the head of the company. You took $700 from me, and thousands of other models for NOTHING. You need to be in jail.
#6 Consumer Suggestion
Not upset enough?
AUTHOR: Klaas - (Netherlands)
SUBMITTED: Monday, August 22, 2005
So, you're "upset with their business practices" because you too were "ripped off by this so-called modeling network" and "would never have anything to do with them again".
Ever thought about sueing them?
If so, why didn't you?
#5 Consumer Suggestion
Not upset enough?
AUTHOR: Klaas - (Netherlands)
SUBMITTED: Monday, August 22, 2005
So, you're "upset with their business practices" because you too were "ripped off by this so-called modeling network" and "would never have anything to do with them again".
Ever thought about sueing them?
If so, why didn't you?
#4 Consumer Suggestion
Not upset enough?
AUTHOR: Klaas - (Netherlands)
SUBMITTED: Monday, August 22, 2005
So, you're "upset with their business practices" because you too were "ripped off by this so-called modeling network" and "would never have anything to do with them again".
Ever thought about sueing them?
If so, why didn't you?
#3 Consumer Suggestion
Not upset enough?
AUTHOR: Klaas - (Netherlands)
SUBMITTED: Monday, August 22, 2005
So, you're "upset with their business practices" because you too were "ripped off by this so-called modeling network" and "would never have anything to do with them again".
Ever thought about sueing them?
If so, why didn't you?
#2 UPDATE Employee
This Posting Has Come to My Attention
AUTHOR: V - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Tuesday, July 26, 2005
This posting has come to my attention. Apparently, some former talent of WSN were upset with their service and tried to link us to them. I too, am upset with their business practices. I, along with many other people was ripped off by this so-called modeling network. They filed bankruptcy and then reopened under a new name: www.webstylenetwork.com, they are based out of Florida. I assure you that Infinite Talent is not affiliated, and I would never have anything to do with them again. Infinite Talent is a west coast based company. In fact, we ha ve had so many clients request our models, that we felt a need to open an office in Southern California, where the fashion industry thrives. We believe in only marketing the best talent and offering the most impeccable service that we can provide. I am sorry for any miss-understandings.
Heather Duback
#1 UPDATE Employee
Not a fraud! LOU PEARLMAN was linked to money losses... MONSTER at fault
AUTHOR: Michael McIntyre - (U.S.A.)
SUBMITTED: Friday, August 27, 2004
As a resident of one of the Model capitals of the United States, I can tell you the basic premise of the company, was not a bad one. Model 'hopefuls' pack up & move to South Beach and New York, hoping to get selected by a modeling agency to get a start in the business. The idea of a world-wide network of talent based on the internet is so SOUND, that major agencies are beginning to build web 'talent catalogs' just as WSN was using. I have friends in the fashion industry and they agreed that for someone starting out-this was a viable concept.
I only lament the 'break-up' of WSN because without the nation-wide network, the service is lacking. I DO THINK that the company should have been licensed as an agency though (even though they farmed out to established agencies). I hope that some respectable corporation like FASHION TV brings this back from the ashes and makes it work on a world-wide basis.
As for the 'impossible goals' they were constantly lowered until more than one 'scout' was able to meet them. A large percentage of businesses now employ people as independent contractors, (I know, I am one now) so is nearly EVERYONE who works in the Real Estate and Mortgage Broker business (Do you think your friendly neighborhood Real Estate Agent is part of a SCAM?). We were free to come and go as we pleased (It's the law) and I witnessed potential Talent that was REJECTED since they didn't qualify for industry standards.
I heard a RUMOR that the Chairman LOU PEARLMAN, was linked to money losses but do not know the facts or what of that is true.
ADDITIONALLY: Since MONSTER is PAID for these ads for employment, it is up to THEM that they are classified correctly.
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