Fraudster strikes kids' site
PerformWith.Us, a new web site that encourages young people to get involved in the performing arts, was a victim of the same person who perpetrated the "High School Musical" themed hoax on The ZOO - Northwest Florida, announced in AP yesterday:
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/F/FL_ZOO_HOAX_FLOL-?SITE=FLDAY&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT
PerformWith.Us has been building their child-friendly, non-profit web site for 10 months based on promises from this person that all of the main stars of Disney's High School Musical franchise were under contract to him and would help provide publicity and content for the new site. This person agreed to give PerformWith.Us exclusive rights to cover a benefit concert at the ZOO. The ZOO discovered that the whole thing was a hoax on Monday, two days before a press conference to announce the benefit.
The person claimed to work for a company owned by Disney performer Drew Seeley, and to be related to both Drew Seeley and High School Musical star Zac Efron. Over the past 10 months, he spun an elaborate lie based on his supposed connection to the High School Musical franchise. This included fake corporate paperwork, emails that were supposedly from "Drew Seeley" and Disney executives, and ongoing fictional information about the private lives of the two Disney stars and their co-stars - Vanessa Hudgens, Ashley Tisdale, Lucas Grabeel, and Monique Coleman.
PerformWith.Us had originally been promised nearly $1 million in startup money to finance a web site that provided social networking and video sharing geared toward people under age 18. When the funding fell through, the creators of PerfomWith.Us pursued the idea, partially based on assurances from this person that he could still provide exclusive, behind-the-scenes access to the High School Musical cast.
Despite this setback, the web site at www.performwithus.com has been launched and the creators of the site are looking for celebrity content to replace the interviews and performances of the High School Musical cast. Questions can be directed to:
Tracy Cassidy
Public Relations Director
PerformWith.Us
tracy@bizling.com
