ShaolinTiger
11-01-2007, 10:48 PM
This is an official statement regarding VR Star Model contest and it's association with Shutter Asia.
We will no longer be supporting, or having anything to do with the organisation, photography or running of the VR Star Model event.
We hereby fully withdraw all of our support and would like to warn people to be careful due to recently gathered information regarding the organiser who calls himself Mr Alan Hoo.
His real name is actually Loo Fung Chen and he is a con-man.
http://www.shutterasia.com/forum/../images/ori-1714_c.jpg
The above picture was taken by Mamakap at the recent VR Star event.
Please view these images received today from a circular e-mail sent around the photographic and model community:
http://www.shutterasia.com/forum/../images/ATT00019.dat.jpg
http://www.shutterasia.com/images/ATT00016.dat.jpg
The event featured in the above e-mail was held on the 4th & 5th of March 2006 in Muar. Apparently over 300 people were cheated and at least RM100,000 lost.
A police report was made and it was found he was already wanted, apparently he frequently labels himself as an event planner - but never pays his suppliers.
This was verified by us, he has 7 cases outstanding with the police.
He has held other events in Bukit Tinggi, Desa Water Park and Ipoh.
We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this has caused any of our members or any confusion this has caused.
You can see similar information here from a Guang Ming article on him from September:
Guang Ming Daily (http://www.guangming.com.my/content.phtml?sec=193&sdate=&artid=200709222793)
The English translation is here:
Guang Ming - Translated (http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guangming.com.my%2Fco ntent.phtml%3Fsec%3D193%26sdate%3D%26artid%3D20070 9222793&langpair=zh%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools)
We, Nikon and everyone else that believed this event was legitimate have been conned.
Nikon has also withdrawn their support and sponsorship for this contest, but will still honour the prizes from the first week (28th October 2007 at Cineleisure).
Please be wary, sadly sometimes we are too willing and too kind hearted and we forget there are such people in the world who only exist to deprive others of their hard-earned money.
People like this will promise all sorts of things, about the contacts they have and how much money is backing them...at the end they will disappear with whatever they can get.
I hope justice is done.
Thankfully no-one has lost too much, apart from some time and effort.
We hope there is no hard feeling from anyone or any other forums involved and that we can all move on and find better, more positive events to support.
I am not going to suggest you don't go to any VR Star Models events, but if you do go, be cautious about the so called contest, and any fees that may be imposed.
If you want to just go take pictures go ahead.
But I would caution everyone against supporting this event on ethical grounds.
Thank you for your support and understanding.
We will no longer be supporting, or having anything to do with the organisation, photography or running of the VR Star Model event.
We hereby fully withdraw all of our support and would like to warn people to be careful due to recently gathered information regarding the organiser who calls himself Mr Alan Hoo.
His real name is actually Loo Fung Chen and he is a con-man.
http://www.shutterasia.com/forum/../images/ori-1714_c.jpg
The above picture was taken by Mamakap at the recent VR Star event.
Please view these images received today from a circular e-mail sent around the photographic and model community:
http://www.shutterasia.com/forum/../images/ATT00019.dat.jpg
http://www.shutterasia.com/images/ATT00016.dat.jpg
The event featured in the above e-mail was held on the 4th & 5th of March 2006 in Muar. Apparently over 300 people were cheated and at least RM100,000 lost.
A police report was made and it was found he was already wanted, apparently he frequently labels himself as an event planner - but never pays his suppliers.
This was verified by us, he has 7 cases outstanding with the police.
He has held other events in Bukit Tinggi, Desa Water Park and Ipoh.
We sincerely apologise for any inconvenience this has caused any of our members or any confusion this has caused.
You can see similar information here from a Guang Ming article on him from September:
Guang Ming Daily (http://www.guangming.com.my/content.phtml?sec=193&sdate=&artid=200709222793)
The English translation is here:
Guang Ming - Translated (http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.guangming.com.my%2Fco ntent.phtml%3Fsec%3D193%26sdate%3D%26artid%3D20070 9222793&langpair=zh%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&prev=%2Flanguage_tools)
We, Nikon and everyone else that believed this event was legitimate have been conned.
Nikon has also withdrawn their support and sponsorship for this contest, but will still honour the prizes from the first week (28th October 2007 at Cineleisure).
Please be wary, sadly sometimes we are too willing and too kind hearted and we forget there are such people in the world who only exist to deprive others of their hard-earned money.
People like this will promise all sorts of things, about the contacts they have and how much money is backing them...at the end they will disappear with whatever they can get.
I hope justice is done.
Thankfully no-one has lost too much, apart from some time and effort.
We hope there is no hard feeling from anyone or any other forums involved and that we can all move on and find better, more positive events to support.
I am not going to suggest you don't go to any VR Star Models events, but if you do go, be cautious about the so called contest, and any fees that may be imposed.
If you want to just go take pictures go ahead.
But I would caution everyone against supporting this event on ethical grounds.
Thank you for your support and understanding.