WITH supermodels Linda Evangelista, Cindy Crawford and Kate Moss hogging the headlines as the superstars of the day, modelling has never looked so attractive. But the media frenzy which is putting millions into the pockets of a few is also emptying the bank accounts of many.
In Hong Kong, naive young men and women are being flattered out of their savings by unscrupulous modelling agencies who tell them they could be the next Christy Turlington or Nick Moss.
Make-up, photography, even the promise of training are being offered as inducements to sign on the dotted line, and hand over as much as $13,000.
The Consumer Council said it had received complaints from victims who had paid $500 to $700 for a series of promotional photographs, $3,000 to $5,000 for a contract, and $6,000 to $13,000 for a training course. Chief complaints and advice officer Chan Wing-kai told of one man who was nudged into a $680 audition by a talent scout.
He passed the test and was talked into paying $12,400 to enrol for a training course which he was told would equip him for modelling jobs.
The man paid half the amount and asked the company to guarantee freelance jobs for him. The company refused and declined to give a refund. In another case, a woman victim was scouted by a modelling agency employee in Causeway Bay and flattered into paying$680 for an audition and $6,000 for a training course. She was told that she could earn $9,800 in three days modelling for a TV commercial. But the job never materialised and the company disappeared with her money.
