Complaint Review: Talent6 - San Bruno California

What is Talent6 and Who Am I?

Talent6 is a 100% Advance Fee Talent Scam. There is nothing legit about Talent6. If you have signed up, you have just been scammed. You need to take action right now.

I should know, I worked there for several years starting off in the sales and ending up in "Member Support". The MS Department is anything but that, as the main function is to do anything and promise anything to get you to remain a member past the 14 day free trial. After that you get billed and the refund is denied on terms of service.

Who Owns Talent6?

Talent6 is owned by three Russians that operate call centers in Latvia, Moldolva and San Bruno, California.

Igor Reiant - CEO of Talent 6, Board Member

Alex Weinstein - Talent 6 Board Member, CEO of ITNCORP, Asaptickets.com

Sam Berzin - VP Talent6, Board Member

Talent6 Mode of Operation

Talent6 preys upon the very people that can afford it the least. The un-employed, the layed off and people desperate for work in this down economy. T6 employs a professional spam team (Marketing Department) that is very good at what they do. They run phony job ads on Craigslist, Careerbuilder, Employement Guide and in hundreds of daily newspapers. Advertising alone exceeds $100K per month.

You probably answered one of those ads looking for a job and had no idea it was a sales pitch till after you called. In a totally illogical move you went from job hunting to breaking out the credit card in less than 4 minutes! Completely irrational.

Don't feel bad, Igor Reiant has spent tens thousands of dollars paying psychologist to develop the script with things like asking you "Does your card have a middle initial on it". This is designed to make you pull out your CC and check, thus getting it in front of you and in your hand. (They actually brag about this little trick in the three day training to new agents)

The first three questions are designed to get you to say YES several times in a row, a subliminal setup for closing you. New sales agents are trained to speak in "Down Tones" in a directing way and constantly use "Go ahead" after key statements. I bet you can remember the following "Spell you name, go ahead" or "Read me the 16 digit number that apears on the front of your card, go ahead". Every "Go Ahead is strategically placed to move you along in hurried fashion against your better judgement

Agents are trained and constantly reminded to control the conversation, to stick to a pre-scripted rebuttal and FORCE the client down the script. In the training this is referred to as "Stick and Move".

Why is it a Scam?

Simple, the whole thing is a farce.

The 3000 casting calls per week you are paying for access to is ripped off dozens of sites by the T6 workforce overseas in Moldova and Lativia and placed on the Talent6 website. These listings mostly originate from Craigslist, Mandy, Free Casting Call and others. Talent 6 has no "exclusive casting calls". None.

The 60,000+ Casting Directors is also a farce. When ever a casting call is stolen by Talent6 and placed on the site, an email with a login is sent to the original poster. They instantly become a "Casting Director" on Talent6 even if they aren't aware. Real Casting Directors loathe Talent6 and demand their content and name be removed.

Getting paid to be a "Movie Extra" or "Reality TV Star" is a joke. There are a million unemployed Extras in Los Angeles alone. Very few to none ever get paid. There is no shortage of extra talent.

Talent6 also advertises nationwide and will tell you no matter where you are, i.e, Kearney, Nebraska that there is work right around the corner.

Talent6 cannot name a single person that has ever had success, or become famous after joining. It is a complete scam designed to get your monthly charge, plain and simple.

How Big is Talent6 and How Much Do They Steal?

In Mid February 2010 Talent6 had 100+ people working in two shifts from 5AM - 10PM on Weekdays and from 7AM - 7PM on Weekends. They have even more than that working at Call Centers in Riga, Lativia and Chinasau, Moldova.

I only know and had access to the San Bruno numbers but Talent6 was brining in right at 600+ sales per day on the US side.  Probably double if you throw in the overseas operation. You might also note that Igor Reiant, aka Search For Talent, ACT Network, Talent6 has been ripping off people like this for over 5 years now completely unchecked till now.

Talent6 grosses multi millions of dollars every year, it is a complex and well organized criminal activity that funnels most of it's earnings back to Russia for safe keeping and out of reach of the US Authorities.

Talent6 is under investigation

Finally after years of complaints, BBB complaints, 1000's of online complaints and chargebacks some one has paid attention.

Chuck Finney Deputy District Attorney for San Mateo County.

This is the county that Talent6 is located in. In reponse, The Talent6 Board has shifted most of the financial assets back to Russia and has laid off most the 100+ employees in San Bruno. Business hasn't slowed down, they just shifted the calls to overseas. Kind of hard for Mr. Finney to reach all the way to Moldova. (Actually heard Igor Reiant say those words standing in our lobby on his cell)

On March 27 2010 Talent6 laid off myself as well as all of the US based member support staff and shifted it all to Moldova. Only the Marketing, Phony Casting Department and vital people remain in the USA, about 20 people.

 It is plainly obvious to all this is an attempt to fool the San Mateo DA into thinking that T6 has folded and gone while actually just relocating back to a SF absed administrative operation and changing names. The pace and ripoff of Californians and people nationwide will not slow down though.

With Talent6 moving out of San Bruno by June 1st, laying off the US employees and transferrring all of its assets overseas they will probably escape any meaningful action and simply form a new company, rinse and repeat as they have done several times before.

Talent6 How To Cancel and Fight Back

If you have given Talent6 your credit card number, DO NOT bother calling the member support line. Even if they tell you they have cancelled your account, you will be "Force Billed" in an effort to gety your money. A limited number of accounts are indeed cancelled prior to the 14 day limit in order to show the DA that T6 complies. After a cycle or two of forced billing has occurred you will eventually close your account or initiate a chargeback and thgen and only then, will you not be charged further.

Steps:

 1) Initiate a chrage back with your bank and not even bother with Talent6 Customer Service.

2) Contact Chuck Finney Deputy District Attorney for the San Mateo Co. District Attorney's Office, Consumer Protection Unit at  cfinney [at] co.sanmateo.ca.us or call 650.363.4097

3) Contact Careerbuilder, Craigslsit or call any of the newspapers to complain and direct them to this site.

4) Add a "rebuttal" to this post. The bigger it gets, the more people will know.

Conclusion

If we work together we can bring this Criminal Organization down. Igor Reiant has made millions of dollars off ripping off the un-employed and abusing his employees. It is time we stop allowing this parasite to spend every weekend in Tahoe or Vegas off this venture.

and finally,

If it ever seems to be too good to be true, it probably is!