[Talent/modeling] MTM Agency

I thought I'd share this one in B&BC, even though I'm sure most of you have already heard to beware of so-called talent agencies that work surprisingly like scam literary agencies or certain vanity presses.

I went to a Halloween store Sunday and was stopped by a pretty woman in front asking if I had ever considered modeling.

(I'll stop the story right now because A. I'm not model material, and B. As soon as she said "modeling" I knew exactly what the scam was.)

I let her do her spiel about the agency looking for models and they'll find you jobs blah blah blah, and eventually I said no and she let me go.

As I wandered the aisles close to the front of the store, I noticed she stopped EVERYONE who walked through the door. Race creed, gender, nothing mattered. I had no idea so many people could be professional models.

The company was MTM modeling agency, so I looked it up online, the same way you might google "Publish America and SCAM.

I found the ripoff report page. It was exactly what I expected to find. Sign up for this "agency" and you have to pay for their expensive useless classes, then supposedly they find you work, which apparently includes being a person sent to a Halloween store to canvas for future models. And then never getting paid for your work. And being treated nastily by the agency when you ask any questions. Sounds like PA's model, for sure.

I'm sure nobody at AW would actually go for something like this, but I wanted to share the story.

When I was a kid, about 8 or so, I met another guy, 10 years old, who soon turned into a good friend. He had recently been to Barbizon school for modeling, and I could tell you all the modeling jobs he ever got in the years I've known him: zero.

You're right, I hadn't realized that when I looked them up. There's no guarantee that the lady I ran into at that store was with that particular group.

However, it's highly unlikely that a legitimate modeling agency would send a scout to a Halloween store to canvas potential models. Even worse, stopping every person who walks through the door.

There was an episode of Everybody Loves Raymond where something very similar happened to Ray's brother Robert. He was stopped by a "scout" somewhere and was told he was model material. He went to the agency's very busy office to speak with the guy and sign arrange for a photo shoot, for which he paid several thousand dollars. He later figured out it was a scam, and when he went back to the office, everything was gone. The whole place was cleaned entirely out. Lesson learned, and he was a police officer.

Just an update, this agency did finally call me to schedule a "free" photo shoot. I politely turned her down.

And the caller ID said it was John Casablanca modeling agency, as referenced in the ripoff report.