Tct, Trans Con, Wilhelmina, Industry Magazine, Edge Talent, Options W**** STORY Orlando Florida

The following report is from the same people who made the initial investigation which is actually what caused most of the complaints. The Attorney General has stated that he had never seen a situation where complaints came BECAUSE of the news reports, and actually this website.

Here is the link:

http://www.wftv.com/news/3550420/detail.html

Here is the report:

Modeling Company Linked To Lou Pearlman Cleared Of Wrongdoing

POSTED: 6:31 am EDT July 20, 2004

ORLANDO, Fla. -- The Florida Attorney General's Office has cleared a nationwide model scouting company, linked to boy band king Lou Pearlman, of any wrongdoing.


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The state closed its investigation into the firm that left hundreds of consumers all over the country claiming they were misled.

An internal office memo obtained by Action 9 revealed the Attorney General's Office didn't find any evidence of substantial violations by Options Talent.

The Better Business Bureau says it's a serious setback to consumers who had filed complaints.

"We had nearly 900 complaints from consumers who were anticipating they get even some of their money back. That closes the door on that," says Judy Pepper of the Better Business Bureau.

The investigation had also included Transcontinental Talent and Wilhelmina Scouting, which were the new company names after Lou Pearlman took over.

Action 9 found many model wannabes felt misled by the company's telephone sales tactics.

Pearlman would not comment on the state's decision.

I have been working for this company for over a month now, and I have seen nothing but a SCAM. First of all the Office Cordinator by the name of Amber treats her employees like total crap.

She talks down to everyone like they are beneath her. She is a 20 year old ex-model (atleast that is what she tells everyone). Who makes this big amount of money working for Whilemina but yet drives an old sunfire.

I have talked to her to inform her that my check has been short over 3 times and yet she acts like it is no big deal-but then again I'm sure it isn't for her. I am staying there just to collect my last little bit of money they owe me.

I was wondering what happened to there job postings at Monster.com, but after reading these stories I see why Monster will not let them post job listings. I just wish I knew about this a month ago. I thought this was going to be a opportunity for me to get into the entertainment industry, instead I got into a ugly big scam.

Not only do they scam the models but they cheat and lie to the employees. For anyone who is approached by someone telling them "do you model?" just start running. And if you are approached to work for them, I suggest you stand infront of a building with a sigh that will say "will work for food" instead-you will get more money that way.

This scam is almost at the end of its rope, and when it goes down Amber and all her flunkies will be out of a job. Here is a hint Amber: Don't put this on your resume.

lol this is a great one...so your a TE im guessing or was....well your #'s were probably down because u are not a salesmen you cant sell and thats why you dont work there anymore....the #'s never went down the call volume actually rose at that time i worked in the dispatch department when dateline aired that horrible report.....and you are commenting horribly....it is not 59.95 a month it was 59.95 quarterly, add up 3 months what do you get?? oh duh?? but we have gone back to 19.95 a month about a week ago....i am currently a TE and the company is actually not losing anything it is growing redicoulously.....get a clue..Were you the one in the shadows on the Dateline piece? Chichenshit! ..and RIP-OFF.COM how about you post some of the comments just such as this one i post...or wait i think this site is just a big scam too isnt it!!....you can redact...what ever that means, that last statement if youd like

lol this is a great one...so your a TE im guessing or was....well your #'s were probably down because u are not a salesmen you cant sell and thats why you dont work there anymore....the #'s never went down the call volume actually rose at that time i worked in the dispatch department when dateline aired that horrible report.....and you are commenting horribly....it is not 59.95 a month it was 59.95 quarterly, add up 3 months what do you get?? oh duh?? but we have gone back to 19.95 a month about a week ago....i am currently a TE and the company is actually not losing anything it is growing redicoulously.....get a clue..Were you the one in the shadows on the Dateline piece? Chichenshit! ..and RIP-OFF.COM how about you post some of the comments just such as this one i post...or wait i think this site is just a big scam too isnt it!!....you can redact...what ever that means, that last statement if youd like

lol this is a great one...so your a TE im guessing or was....well your #'s were probably down because u are not a salesmen you cant sell and thats why you dont work there anymore....the #'s never went down the call volume actually rose at that time i worked in the dispatch department when dateline aired that horrible report.....and you are commenting horribly....it is not 59.95 a month it was 59.95 quarterly, add up 3 months what do you get?? oh duh?? but we have gone back to 19.95 a month about a week ago....i am currently a TE and the company is actually not losing anything it is growing redicoulously.....get a clue..Were you the one in the shadows on the Dateline piece? Chichenshit! ..and RIP-OFF.COM how about you post some of the comments just such as this one i post...or wait i think this site is just a big scam too isnt it!!....you can redact...what ever that means, that last statement if youd like

lol this is a great one...so your a TE im guessing or was....well your #'s were probably down because u are not a salesmen you cant sell and thats why you dont work there anymore....the #'s never went down the call volume actually rose at that time i worked in the dispatch department when dateline aired that horrible report.....and you are commenting horribly....it is not 59.95 a month it was 59.95 quarterly, add up 3 months what do you get?? oh duh?? but we have gone back to 19.95 a month about a week ago....i am currently a TE and the company is actually not losing anything it is growing redicoulously.....get a clue..Were you the one in the shadows on the Dateline piece? Chichenshit! ..and RIP-OFF.COM how about you post some of the comments just such as this one i post...or wait i think this site is just a big scam too isnt it!!....you can redact...what ever that means, that last statement if youd like

After just one week of training I and other "scouts" realized that Wilhelmina Scouting Nework was the biggest scam we had witnessed. I just received the extensive list of infractions and violations against Wilhelmina and it is nothing short of mind numbing (source was modelingfraud@usa.net).

We give out these fake cards with the name of a VP (Marie Spears) that does not exist, we fool people into thinking that they have that certain "look," when in fact we're just getting the bodies in the door. Most appalling to me was not only the fact that these potential "models" were going to be charged less than $1000, but that they would have to pay upfront! That is unheard of in this industry.

And people were told this after waiting on line, getting photographed, measured, etc. for hours. They were basically told that it was "now or never." I'm also annoyed to see that Monster.com has an affiliation with Wilhelmina. Who are the greedy ones now? Can they be stopped from posting these ads if they are a) misleading and b) since the organixation and its members are under criminal investigation?

This doesn't surprise me at all, but I just recently heard news that Wilhemina/TCT is once again ripping off their "talent". Not only did they raise their enrollment fee from $795 to $995 which is ridiculous. They are now raising their monthly fee from 19.95 a month to......get this $59.95 a month!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is crazy.



Since they aren't gettting enough people to enroll they are simply getting more money from the people that have already enrolled. So those of you who are still on the network better get out of it before you end up with an empty bank account.



And if there is anyone that knows how to terminate the enrollment and get the money back please do cause these people are crazy. I just hope that the people at the NYC offices that I know aren't still there. Hopefully they realized that this company is a complete scam.