Dennis
Hamburg,#2Consumer Comment
Fri, August 10, 2007
I was approached by the same company in Bergen County for my daughter. I also had a bad experience with a company Zazou Modeling in Fort Lee and later Edgewater. They have since gone out of business and the owner Helen fled to Florida and then fled to California running from the law. Luckily, I did not have any further contact with the company after doing research and gave no personal credit cards or checks or I would be in the same boat as you. Your only recourse is to file a criminal complaint against the director that you originally dealt with and charge the manager that you dealt with with conspiracy. You as a private citizen have a right to sign a criminal complaint against another person when you are the victim of a crime. You can also go to the Edgewater Police Department and file a report with them in regards to your situation. They will probably advise you that it is a civil contractual issue, but file the report regardless to have a written report that was made to a police department about this incident. The following criminal laws were violated if all facts that you state are true (no disrespect to you, but sometimes people exaggerate and lie when they are angry, I don't know you): Fraudulent Use of Credit Card 2C:21-6h and Conspiracy to Use a Credit Card obtained fraudulently. Forgery 2C;21-1a(1) should also be charged and Conpiracy to commit Forgery for both individuals for signing a contract and credit card receipt in your brothers name. Also you may wish to look at additional subsections of 2c:21-6 which includes theft of a credit card and other fraudulent uses of credit cards. In addition I would contact the NJ Attorney General's Office who are well aware of these companies and the scams that they commonly commit. They are the one's that investigate these types of companies. The Attorney General's name is Anne Milgram and her phone number is 609-292-4925 and the consumer affairs number is 973-504-6200 Hope this was helpful.