Focus

'I could sense something was wrong when I got home'

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-12-23 07:52

Editor's note: Edward Wong (not his real name), 24, works at a bank in Hong Kong and is a victim of a modeling company scam.

I didn't know I had been cheated until I found (Chris Chan's anti-fraud blog) on the Internet. On its homepage it had the name of the company and a picture of the contract I had signed.

It cost me HK$6,800 ($870).

I was approached in February this year outside Harbour City, a large shopping mall in Tsim Sha Tsui, where many fraudsters look for prey.

The scout just wanted my cell phone number at that point and I agreed to meet them later.

During the first casting session, my first impression was that they were trustworthy. They didn't mention anything about money and they even told me that I'd be unable to do any banking advertisements, as it would be a conflict of interest.

In October, I returned to their office to discuss a HK$20,000 advertisement for red wine and a woman talked at me non-stop for hours. She didn't give me a chance to think.

The manager said she was confident I was ideal for the job and said she had several ideas for the advertisement already, although she never told me what any of them were.

In hindsight, I think they were just planning what amount they should charge me during that conversation.

I was told I must have a set of comp cards and recommended where I could have the pictures taken. They offered me three packages for photos and facial treatments, ranging from HK$10,000 to more than HK$20,000.

I was eventually persuaded to buy a package for HK$16,800, but as I don't have a credit card I was allowed to pay an initial installment of HK$6,800.

I couldn't think straight when I got back to my office, and at home I sensed there was something wrong about the company. After checked them out on the Internet, I discovered there were a lot of victims who had been cheated like me.

After contacting Chris Chan, she advised me to cut all links with the company to prevent losing more money.

Edward Wong was talking to Ming Yeung.