Joseph Gifford, pictured, was a victim of scam artist Jerald Rogers aka Jerry Dean
A man posing as a modeling agent has been scamming men at bars along Cedar Springs Road with promises of travel and a modeling career, Dallas Police officials warn. One victim had his credit ruined but claims another had his identity stolen and bank account drained.
Dallas LGBT Police Liaison Laura Martin said the man operated in Austin before coming to Dallas.
“He’s not a legitimate agent of any sort,” Martin said.
Whether or not the scammer is prosecuted, Martin wanted to make sure people in the community are forewarned.
Joseph Gifford said he met Jerald Dean, also known as Jerry Franklin Rogers, at JR.’s Bar & Grill over the summer.
“He handed me his business card,” Gifford said, which listed the man’s name as Jerald Dean and his agency as Dorf Modeling.
Scam artist Jerry Rogers in a 2008 mug shot
Gifford said Dean took him upstairs in the bar where he spoke to three guys about becoming models for him and took applications. That was the first time Gifford thought there was something odd about the man.
“They were very personal questions,” he said.
The questions involved the potential models’ sexual orientation, favorite position and other things that had nothing to do with modeling. The pictures he required with the application included an underwear shot, but nothing more revealing than that.
Gifford said that didn’t entirely surprise him because Dean told him he provided photography for a number of brands.
After Dean accepted his application, he “hired” Gifford for a modeling shoot in Austin for Buckle, which has 52 stores in Texas including NorthPark and Galleria locations in Dallas.
Gifford drove to Austin with Dean and another model. Two people flew in from Colorado and another from Pennsylvania.
Their airline tickets were paid for. But, “When we got there, we had no hotel,” Gifford said.
Dean told Gifford his account was frozen and his credit card was temporarily deactivated.
Still, when they arrived at the Austin condo where the shoot was to take place, Gifford noticed the Buckle products were there. So while he had misgivings, he wondered why, if it was a scam, would Dean have gone to the trouble of getting the product?
He said the shoot was odd. Dean gave no direction. No one told him which clothes to model. And if Dean was a modeling agent, as he claimed, why was he also the photographer, Gifford wondered.
To cover expenses, Dean gave Gifford a $1,200 check to cash. His bank cashed the check, but later dunned his account for the amount. Gifford said Dean wrote him two more checks to cover the bounced check and another check as payment for the photo shoot, but all of them bounced.
Gifford’s bank told him the checks weren’t bounced just for insufficient funds; the checks were fraudulent.
With airline tickets paid for, Gifford said he knew there was some money coming from somewhere.
About a month later, Dean gave Gifford an airline ticket to a photo shoot in Atlanta. Gifford decided to give Dean one more chance. He hoped this trip would make up for the money he lost on the Austin shoot.
Gifford and another man used their prepaid tickets to Atlanta without a problem, but once they arrived, there was no transportation, no hotel, no food, no money and no photo shoot.
Others scheduled to fly to Atlanta found they were holding invalid tickets when they arrived at the airport, but Gifford said that fortunately, he was able to fly home on his.
Gifford said he’s been in touch with a corporate attorney in Dallas who claimed money was illegally taken from his account. The attorney told Gifford he doesn’t know Dean or know how Dean accessed his account.
Martin said that that the attorney, who Gifford did not identify to Dallas Voice, has filed no police reports about the alleged theft that she has been able to find.
However, if the attorney’s allegations are true, Dean could be arrested for theft and prosecuted for giving the bad checks to Gifford.
Martin said the incident was originally investigated as a sexual assault, but there’s not evidence of that. She said what happened was at least deceptive. In one case, when the victim said no, Dean stopped.
Whether Dean is ever prosecuted, Martin had a warning for gay men in Dallas: “There are people who will take advantage of you by being manipulative,” she said. “Be careful.”
This article appeared in the Dallas Voice print edition October 31, 2014.
