Big Lights, Shattered Dreams

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Summary

A local modeling scouting network is under fire for its practices in getting clients.

Story Published: Jul 10, 2003 at 4:35 PM PDT

Story Updated: Jul 24, 2009 at 11:24 AM PDT

Big Lights, Shattered Dreams
BELLEVUE - So you think you have a cute kid? Maybe want to see if they can make some money for their college savings account by modeling or being in movies.

In our area, parents are being approached and told their children have a future in modeling -- for a price.

Darihan Mills is a lovely 6-year-old.

"I get stopped quite regularly with Dariahn about how pretty she is, (and) how she should be a model," said her mother Kathy Mills.

So she wasn't really surprised when a well-dressed woman stopped her at a local mall, commenting on her daughter's looks.

"She handed me a card and said she's with Wilhelmina Scouting Network and 'We're here scouting today,' " Kathy Mills said.

Kathy told us she's usually pretty skeptical, but she recognized the name Wilhelmina thinking it was part of the famous New York modeling agency.

Wilhelmina was one of the largest scouting networks in the world. They work with Lou Pealman, who discovered Backstreet Boys and N-Sync.

That's what Kathy was told when she brought Darhian for an interview. Talent scouts took a few snapshots and gave them a glossy magazine with the information about the Wilhelmina scouting network in the back. For $995 down and $20 a month, they put your child's picture on a Web site -- "To make it so that your face is accessible to agencies all over the country and all over the world," Kathy Mills said.

The Mills family paid, but when Kathy searched the Web for the name "Wilhelmina Scouting Network she discovered something else:

"The first 10 were all (warning) modeling scams, beware, and my heart just sunk," Kathy Mills said.

In fact, the Better Business Bureau says Wilhemina Scouting Network has an unsatisfactory record, with a pattern of complaints about the company making promises it doesn't keep.

And KOMO viewers may remember when Connie Thompson warned about 'Options Talent' about a year ago (see story here.)

Well, 'Options' is now Wilhelmina Scouting Network. The concept is the same, and the price has almost doubled.

"Now that I've done the reading, there really isn't much to it," Kathy Mills said. " 'Here's a thousand dollars -- we're going to put your picture on a Web site that has over 88,000 faces.' "

We went to the Bellevue office of Wilhelmina Scouting Network. A few publicity stills decorate the walls, but no one here would talk on camera.

We met Anthony Travis outside. He's anxious to come up with the down payment to get his modeling career going. And while we talked with him, another woman approached us asking us for directions to Wilhelmina's office.

"I'm taking my daughter... are you?" the woman said to Travis.

The woman's 'daughter' claims she was scouted. And in just two days on the Web site, she got four job offers.

"Abercrombie and Fitch, the Gap, Banana Republic... promotional work," she said.

"I believe in what they're doing for my daughter and that they can get her work outside this area," the mother said.

But guess what? She's not really just a mom looking for information.

"She's the office director for Wilhelmina Scouting Network," Kathy Mills said. "She's one of the ladies that we first saw there when I went there with my daughter."

The scouting network claims it has no record of the so-called daughter in their database but they admit the 'mother' -- Kim Hance -- is their office manager. The charade troubles Kathy Mills.

So we went back to see what Hance had to say, but she declined comment.

Wilhelmina Scouting Network says the model was actually a scout for the company. They claim both women have been fired for misrepresenting themselves.

Wilhelmina Models in New York refused repeated requests for a statement about the relationship between the scouting network and their company.

The scouting network gave us the names and numbers of three local "success stories." The first two say through the Web site they've gotten "promotional work" handing out samples at a store, but they still have not made back the money they paid to be on the Web site.

The third "success" called the scouting network a big waste of money, said it did nothing for him, and he says he wants his picture off the site.