561-826-0770

Our nonprofit org received a call from Randi, assistant to producer Lorraine Messler. We set up a call, but I found this site and Joan Lunden's warning in the meantime and cancelled the phone appointment immediately. Her response to my statement that we chose "not to participate" confirmed the suspicious nature of the entire affair. The callback number we were given was 754-242-3178 x 294. It's all very convincing on the surface.

what is your website? what business are you in? Can I see a clip of what they produced for you?

I don't know how people could fall for something like this. Any legitimate outlet will NOT charge money to feature you or your organization. My father appeared on Dateline many years ago because he had been in the OSS during WWII, and the program was gathering all of the members still alive and interviewing them. They paid all transportation costs, hotels, etc. plus a per diem for meals while they were there. As I remember they were paid a 'token' fee for appearing as well. I still have the tape they gave him of the segment. (He died quite awhile ago...actually on 9/11. Ironic?)  At any rate, nobody ever asked him for money for anything, nor did they set the segment up anywhere but their own studios. (That would make sense, as there were about a dozen ex OSS members from all over the US and Hawaii.) I do know they all were flattered to be asked and had a great time while they were there, reconnecting with each other. (They also had 'reunions' for many years before that, but many of them couldn't afford to attend.) Sadly, I think they are ALL dead now. At any rate, I'm just wondering why anyone would consider paying someone to do a program, when it's normal for the interviewees to be paid? Am I missing something important here, maybe misunderstanding the 'pitch' or the reasons they believe people would pay them for this 'service'? Are they STILL in business under different names now? So strange, to me anyway.

OK, I hadn't read through all of the comments. I just saw that there are recent ones, so obviously they ARE still in business. I hope they all get arrested, and soon. It would be great if the 'celebs' whose names they drop and say they are affiliated with would sue them. There's obviously great grounds for doing so, and they could easily afford to do so. I will keep checking back for information. I'd love to read that they're all in prison, and that they were forced to repay all of the money they've taken from people over the years AND have to pay a few millions into the system as well. I'm really sorry for anyone who fell for their 'shtick'. I'll pray these people get what's coming to them.

Dude...when the "spokesperson" for the scam series has a warning on their own website about their image/likeness being used without permission, that's a pretty clear warning that something is not right. Doesn't take a genius to figure that one out.

I just got the same call ... odd hurried delivery over the phone and chanted repeating of my name and institution ... does seem creepy  BUT ... they claim that Donald Trump signed the contract, so don't worry!
SO I am out to get his haircut and tanning lotion and be just like the Donald ...

My company was approached just today with the American Milestones scam and might have fallen for it had it not been for those of you who posted before me.  A most sincere thanks to all of you!

American Milestones is a scam. If you even go to Joan Lunden's website, you can see that she has nothing to do with them, but they try to use her credibility to get in the door. Vision Media Television calls up non-profits, offering coverage they cannot guarantee, and unfortunately have been successful at it for what looks like 6+ years!

I got a call on Friday from Mindy, assistant to Leslie Pierce, a producer for PBS series American Milestones asking for more information about our organization.

Looked them up on the web and the first thing that came up was American Milestones Scam, but it had clearly been cleaned up to say that the program researched scams. Keep looking and you find out this is a big scam.

Thank you for this website.

My organization (based in San Francisco) almost fell for this too!  I am so glad that we did our research.  These guys are preying on non-profits. We asked for references and they sent us to a phony non-profit front they had set up. Thanks to this forum - we will not be sending any money to these scammers.

American milestones also contacted me, I didn't give them any money luckily but I did learn my lesson about scam artists. I almost fell for it! Sometimes things are just too good to be true.

Thanks for warning people on Joan's website.  I got the call and almost fell for the scam.

Dr. Gaila Macknezie-Strawn

I'm in Toronto, Canada and also just received a call from a "Randy Shore" personal assistant to "Lorraine Marcel, Executive Producer" at American Milestones with Joan Lunden, setting up a call. They were "researching" art and educational institutions. Sent me to their website at www.americanmilestones.com so I could verify their credentials. I was given Lorraine's personal number: 561-353-9082 x224. My institution does get contacted by various media for commentary and interviews, etc., but this one seemed odd, so started my google search. Thanks VERY much for all the posts.

Do not revieve phone calls from this guy. He gives contradicotry information to different people in our organization. Says he is associated with Joan Lundun, but flip flops on PBS and Frontline. All reports say it is a scam. We will not recieve any further calls from this source.

We received a call from Cameron Johnson, claiming stations were looking for content on military families and so they were reaching out to us. He got upper management all psyched up about it, and we would have been none the wiser if someone hadn't noticed the bill came from "Cornerstone Media, LLC, (possibly their next incarnation?) whereas the questionnaire said American Milestones, LLC, and ran a search to double-check. That's where we found the Joan Lunden post and this thread. Of course, something like this would land in my lap my first week back to work after an extended medical leave. I'm trying not to beat myself up over it, too much, but at least we didn't get any further down the path than we did. I guess I don't have my A-Game back yet. So glad to have found this thread and all of you, though!

We just got the call as well. Same thing: we received an unsolicited call from Randy Star, assistant to Cameron Johnson of American Milestones. Some details: $19,900 free, need to decide in two days, reference to Joan Lunden, tens of millions of viewers promised. We looked at some of their clips: the one on cotton, for example, had nothing but good to say about cotton and featured four speakers, two of whom work for Cotton Inc (though they were not identified as such), and one of whom owns a cotton farm.

Fake show. No affiliation with Joan Lunden. Now the incoming call number is masked, but you're asked to call back to 561-353-9083.

This scam has reinvented itself again under the guise of "In Focus with Martin Sheen".  Still operating out of Boca Roton.  Caller said she was Lori Gold, executive producer for Martin Sheen.  Same video footage about cotton as Loren Rogers above mentioned.  Note the "glow worm" toy which shows the outdated nature of this B roll footage.  The address they provided was from a virtual office called "Davinci Office Solutions, located in a Boca Roton strip mall - 5550 Glades Rd., Suite 500 Boca Raton, FL 33431

I received a call today from Tom Baker claiming to be with In Focus with Martin Sheen. Same scam, terrifying dollar amount. The number given was 772-828-0238 ext 212. Same video footage mentioned, claimed to have ties to PBS' Antiques Roadshow.

Bad Business. Rip Off