561-826-0770

Caller identified herself as Kate Larson, executive assistant to Andy Frame (x 153), who is a producer for an Eco Planet television series.  Said the series was nationally aired and hosted by Hugh Downs.  They were interested in doing a show about environmental building and architectural design and may want to feature our company.

This is a total scam. Got a call from Kate Larson, who said she was the executive producer for Alex Barry who produced Business Trend series hosted by Hugh Downs on public television.

Last week, got a call from Heather Davis who was assistant to Russ Pohlemus, executive producer for Inside Business hosted with Fred Thompson.

These are ALL SCAMS. They want $19,700 scheduling fee for your segment to air. They are not legitimate.  DON'T CALL THEM BACK.

Someone named Kate Larson called to speak with the CEO regarding a Public Televsion show about Imaging Technology.  She mentioned Hugh Downs and asked that the CEO return the phone call to 561-826-0770 ext 153.

I was curious so I "Googled" 561-826-0770.  Thanks so much to everyone who reported the scam.

Got a call telling me that for a total fee of around $25,000 my business would be a featured segment on a PBS program called "Myths, Legends and Supermen" hosted by Hugh Downs.

After speaking with the "TV producer" JP Silva of "The Media Productions", it was agreed that the budget would be too much for my company (---it was!).

Very odd.

Ha, you're not the only one Joe, guess they are targetting comic shops. I got a call this week, and doing a quick search brought me to your post.

Would the host of these programs, Hugh Downs really stake his reputation on a scam? No, he wouldn't.  Logic and research people it's not that hard.

I too received a call for a show on Mental Health and Substance Abuse Recovery.  This number is 561-929-9790  JP Silva who works with Hugh Downs.

Well, folks, I received a call today from a "Kate Larson" requesting to set up time to speak with the physician I work for about a segment to air on public TV regarding anti-aging.  I pressed her a bit on details and specifics because I had a feeling it was bogus.  She couldn't answer any of my questions about her "company."  She left the following telephone number: (561) 826-0770, Ext. 153

Steer clear, my friends, they are upping the ante out there in the wild world of telemarketing.

I received a phone message today from a Kate Larson, executive assistant to Alex Barry, Producer for the TV show Insights, starring Hugh Downs and wanted to speak to me very briefly off the record.  I was to call 561-247-0815 for this conversation.  I decided to Google it and was glad to see all the information before I ever made the call.  Thanks to all of you who reported this ahead of me!

I received a call from a gentleman named Rick for the exact same thing:  he's the producer for the educational series "Insights" hosted by Hugh Downs and would like to feature our company.  Within five minutes, I surmised that this was a telemarketing call vs. a proper PR inquiry.

I received a call from Rachael Pikstein for TV series Insights hosted by Hugh Downs. It was misleading from the start because Rachael Pikstein indicated she wanted to talk to me about Agriculture, which is my field. When I spoke to her she was not at all interested in something I might have to offer as a resource for a program. Instead "InsightsHD" was about selling me a pr package. She worked on me about how big is our advertising budget so that she could fit the amount she is going to charge to what I can afford. The red flag went up when she had to know right then if I was interested enough to pull the trigger on a $22,900 package plus $3,500 for the full program in the next 4 days. I pressed her on why would I have to sign up in 4 days but I was not given a good response. So we did some research.
 It seems that they had contacted us a year ago with a different name "ecoplanet" and that if they are legitimate they don't have any land phone lines. They are really from Boca Raton Fl. and they hide the source data from their web site. If they are legit they are very secretive about who they really are.

I received a call today from Kate Larson executive assistant to Bruce Blike, who is the producer of the show "Insights" hosted by Hughe Downs.  This one was also a series on "Anti-aging Solutions" and they want to talk to me 'off the record'.  I googled it, thank goodness!  I'm not even going to call back!  

The number was (561) 305-2468...bogus!

Just received a call from a John Birmingham, older gentleman,professional demeanor.John "produces a show called Insights With Hugh Downs". Heard this before so I decided to ask "John" some questions. Said that he was located in Palm Beach, but the shows are done "on location". He said that he was going to "go in a different direction" after I asked enough questions that let him know that I knew where we were going with this...nowhere! Sorry "John".

A man named Jay Silva called representing Insights with Hugh Downs, directed me to a website www.insightshd.com which is a well done and compelling site and told me about their show and that we had been selected for their series on Substance Abuse Treatment with Martin Sheen. When I heard that our investment would be approximately $26,000 I realized I had heard this before. This company calls every year under a different name and we fell for this once - received a subpar video and None of the airtime that was promised! Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice...When I pressed him for references and asked for a schedule of when their current shows would be aired he became irritated and much more aggressive.

We received a similar call from Ed Howell a producer for Insights with Hugh Downs and a segment called "Helping Humanity". He wanted to set up a time to speak with my boss to learn how our organization is helping humanity and discuss the prospect of being part of their segment. He left the phone number for his assistant Angel Marraca (561-518-8196) and the web address (www.insightshd.com).

I spoke with the assistant to get a better sense of what role they were looking for from us. The phone number on the caller ID was 561-826-0188. She was vague and couldn't answer questions about the content of the show. When I explained the work of our organization, she replied, "You ARE helping humanity, and the public should know!" A very strange response considering the information I shared. She refused to set up a time for me to speak with Ed because he was only interested in speaking with a "decision maker".

I deal with legitimate reporters and producers all the time, so this was all very suspect. I did some digging around and found this thread. Thanks everyone for posting your experiences with these calls!

Just wanted to be sure these additional names and numbers get added to the mix:
Ed Howell
Angel Marraca
561-518-8196
561-826-0188

Don't waste your time with these people!

I got a message from an individual named John Birmingham. The contact number that he gave me was 954-822-3733. He said that he wants to talk to the CEO about doing a segment on TV about the type of field that our company is in (I will not disclose that here) and feature our CEO. Supposedly, he works for a nationally televised show named "Insides with Hugh Downs". When I searched online for Hugh Downs' TV background, I did not find anything about this show. I am positive now that this is a scam after reading the messages on this page.

Hi, found your thread thanks, I had exactly the same scenario but with different names, Heather Davis rang for first call and then I waited a week for the second call with the associate producer, George Davis, then had another call a few days later.  They were pretty slick but I started to smell a rat when they asked me to pay $29,500 as a "partnership" to be on their news item! Then they wanted me to sign up straight away before the weekend even though the segment wouldn't air for 3 months! Whats the hurry?

Anyway, the number I had was 0019546711095
I live outside the USA so I was not aware of any of the names
In the end, the weave of websites, names and interlocking between organisations in itself was suspicious.  

The names I had were "Susan Eisner"
Offices of "Anthony DiMeglio"
Programme "The Art of Living"
"Inside business report"
"George Davis"
"Heather Davis"
hdavis@productionstaff.net

http://www.watchartofliving.com/aolinfo/default.htm

Here's some of their email to me:
We are finalizing the scheduling for “The Art of Living” with Marilu Henner, and more specifically, our segments for the 2010 season. We are considering Medical Tourism-XXX (I've removed the country) for a five (5) minute segment on topics, trends and issues related to “Focus on Medical Tourism” in our "Global Healthcare" series



This segment will air one (1) time nationally on Discovery Channel, one (1) time nationally on Travel Channel and thirty (30) times regionally on CNN Headline News through regional cable operators and/or Regional News Networks  in many of the top 100 markets nationwide based on viewer demographics, interests and distribution checklist. As discussed, The Art of Living and its programs have no direct affiliation with the networks on which they air.  



$29,700 USD is the total scheduling fee. Keep in mind, the Senior Producer will have some additional questions prior to final scheduling of this segment.



The Senior Producer I will contact you on Thursday, December 3rd at 5:00 p.m. EST.

Hope this helps you all!

Our message came from 561-305-1778. Same as most people: wanted to talk to our executive director about the possibility of a phone interview for Insights with Hugh Downs for the "Helping Humanity" show. Suffice to say, after reading this, I have no plan to call them back!

Add some more names to the list of names they're using: My call was from Gina Gaudi, and she's supposedly the assistant to TV producer Christian Rothchild.

I'm not sure what number caller ID said this came from, since I just had a message to call back this number.

Received a call from Karen Watts 561-860-2562 stating that Hugh Downs was interested in featuring our Hospice on their Insights Program. They scheduled a phone interview for today, but I told them we had to get permission from our marketing department to go any further.  After they didn't call, I googled, and this came up.  It all makes sense now.  The original message I got sounded like it was from a telemarketer in the first place

When I called this number i got  a flower shop