Ibex Weddings Is A Fraud

The same thing has happened to my husband & I we got married September 23rd 2006 and a man did show up and videotapd us for 10 hours but months have gone by and we can not find him anywhere we got married in Illinois and the check we sent him for full payment was actually deposited in Missouri, We want to find him SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO bad not only for the video and/or money but mostly to stop him from doing this to other couples. We know there are others because of the better business bureau . And we`ve done alot of investigating any extra info would be greatly appreciated and just to talk and vent!

I`m sorry to tell you that we`ve gone through the same thing with this guy and our daughter`s wedding was 10/01/05. They are still accepting bookings via their website but I`m in the process of filing a small claims action as well as filing a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General`s oifice.

He did this to my sister. She wants to prosecute him.

This happened to my sister too. We would be willing to participate in a lawsuit if anyone is interested. We`re going to nail this ass to the wall!

I am another victim of this fraud. I was married in Tomahawk, Wisconsin on June 24, 2006 and it has been 9 months now and I can not get a hold of Ibex Studios. I will provide you with all the information I have. I have an actual address: Ibex Studios 17125 CW Bluemound Road, #166, Brookfield, WI 53005. I live in Colorado so unfortunately I can not go there. I also have another address: 209 West University Avenue Suite 101 Champaigne, IL 61820 which is their main studio. I have a signed contract signed by Jessica Farris (JC Farris) jessicaf@ibexproductions.com and I paid $1,250.00. Part of it was on a credit card through PayPal on the internet ( I have a receipt for this payment the company this time is called Ibex Multimedia) and part of it was with a check. We could contact PayPal to get money back and have them refuse service to Ibex so they can not take anyone`s money through PayPal at least. The man who actually videotaped the wedding was not Alex Pearl (that I know of ...who knows at this point) But he was a heavier set man and I was told he was a reliable videographer they use on a regular basis. When I contacted Ibex I spoke to both Alex Pearl and Jessica Farris over the phone. I gave them a deposit to secure the date and got a signed contract. They made me a photo montage that I played at the wedding and a man came to videotape the wedding so I was surprised to hear after all that trouble they wouldn`t just at least send me the raw footage so I am thinking maybe they scam the videographers too. It sounds like their could be A LOT of people they screwed with and could add up to be enough money where even the FBI could get involved. It looks like this guy used to have the same company out of Seattle called Alex Pearl Video Creations. The sad thing is our raw footage is out their somewhere possibly if someone came to videotape the wedding. I am applying to graduate school right now so unfortunately I can`t put my heart in soul into getting these people for another couple of months...they`ve already messed with my life enough. But I am available to answer any questions and provide any information, etc.. And I will let you know when I move forward with this. These are my goals 1) try to get my raw footage 2) get my money back 3) stop these guys from scamming other people 4) make them pay for their scams legally - they belong in jail and out of a lot of money... They are apparently scamming a lot of people which makes this a very serious offense...it`s not just you. They are also involved in several different states which makes this more serious. They are criminals! A few ideas off the top of my head are to try to contact the person who actually videotaped your wedding because they were most likely scammed too (unfortunately I didn`t get the guys name but I am going to check with the local hotels...my wedding was in a small town so that should help) Contact the other service providers at the wedding that I know talked to the videographer and see if they know anything. Assuming Ibex has the raw footage we could maybe at least get that out of them if we come together. Ideally, we could get it all...our precious memories, our money, and make them pay for what they`ve done. If we get enough people together their may be a lawyer interested in taking this case and we wouldn`t be out any money. Something that can be easily done is get them off PayPal and get them off these referral lists like this partypop.com, wedj.com, weddingmanor.com, myseattlewedding.com, chicagostyleweddings.com, portraitphotography.com, allweddingplanning.com, could contact google, etc and let them know so their website will not come up in a search, contact their website designer, contact who they lease their office from, Better Business Bureau, get our complaints to come up when people search Ibex. If Ibex knows we all know about each other it may scare them more. I saved all my e-mails from them and they were playing along the whole time...sick! If you are reading this and you got scammed by the same people too please reply. Well I could go on forever and I will look into this further in the near future. If you have any ideas/information to share please post it. Thank you for listening and for posting your messages!

I`m in the process of filing a complaint with the Illinois Attorney General. I will include a copy of all of these emails to support my case. I`d recommend that everyone do the same in the respective states where you were defrauded. My husband is an attorney and said that this is our best approach along with filinf something in small claims court. He said that it`s unlikely we`ll ever get our money back but we can prosecute this jerk.

I have also been trying to get a wedding video out of Alex Pearl since Sept. 2, 2006. I should have known something was wrong with them when they were no longer accepting payment through PayPal, and wouldn`t take credit cards. The Champaign address in another`s post isn`t valid any more. That`s the address I used in my Better Business Bureau complaint. Check his website for his new email address. I actually got a response from him in January promising my video in 30 days. Of course, that`s long past and no more contact. I paid $1700 for my son`s wedding video. Alex did the wedding himself, and told me he was moving the business to Oak Park, IL to be closer to his new baby daughter. If anyone can get a valid mailing address for him, I`d like to take him to small claims court. A class action would be better if we can all get together. I also want the raw footage and the money back so I can take it to someone who will actually do the work. Thanks for starting this post!!!

Hello Everyone!
Thank you very much for all your reply`s.
Loretta- We have looked into filing a lawsuit and you can either file in the state of the event or in the state of the person`s place of business. And in Illinois you can get up to $10,000 in return. By the sounds of things here, if we all pooled together we could, as a whole recoup our money and have this man removed from doing this to anyone again. My husband and I travelled to the Harlem Street Address. We discovered this was a UPS place that had mailboxes. His mailbox, #110, has been closed down. But they have his social security number and driver`s license information there. However, we need to supenia them for the information. From that we can track him down. I have also filed with the BBB but they seem to drop cases if they can`t find the business individual. Together we may have enough people and cases for a civil case.
Jennifer is correct. I have already started contacted sites that have him listed to have him removed. Now this message board seems to pop up near the top for searches. I also have a friend putting a website together to discredit Alex Pearl and Ibex Studios. His website is registered through TUCOWS, INC. It was updated in 12/2006 and expires 11/07. There is a W. Kirby in champaign, IL address listed. Is this address correct? Has anyone checked this out? I know other addresses in Champaign are invalid how is this one in particular since he was just using it in December 2006.
I wanted to let you know that he too told me that he had a baby born in August. He also said he was moving all his businesses from MI, Wi, IN, and OH to IL. He also did contact me in January as well and said that he would have the job done in a two week time period. And now we still haven`t heard or seen anything. Alex did videotape our wedding and tried to send someone else to do it. We immediately refused and am out of $2500 as a result. He taped for TWO days for our wedding and has given us nothing.
The other gentleman that came to videotape, was his name Lex? Has anyone ever dealt with a Nancy?
Good Luck to EVERYONE! We can`t necessarily get the memories back but hopefully we can at least get the money back.

I CAN NOT BELIEVE SOMEONE WOULD DO SOMETHING LIKE THIS. THIS IS A NIGHTMARE, SOMEONE HAS TO STOP HIM. IM GETTING MARRIED IN JULY, I WILL TRY TO HELP OUT AS FAR AS TRYING TO FIND A PHOTOGRAPHER. MEANING I WILL TRY TO FIND HIS WEB SIGHT AND ASK FOR PRICES. I WOULD BE SO UPSET IF THIS HAPPENED TO ME. IM SORRY THAT ALL OF YOU HAD THIS HAPPEN, BEST OF LUCK..I WILL KEEP IN TOUCH

Why doesn`t somebody hire him for a fake wedding and then set him up?

To have a picture of him is great evidence. People can change all their information but there is only so much you can do to change what you look like. What does he look like? Maybe it was him who videotaped my wedding. I`d love a description so I can try to figure it out. Is he a heavier set man? It`s interesting they aren`t with PayPal anymore. Has anyone checked with their bank about the check you wrote Ibex. There must be a way to track which bank your check was deposited through...it`d be nice to know where he`s doing banking so he can`t accept checks from people either. The people who got a response from him in January...how did you get a response...through e-mail? Did you threaten him? because I was playing nice nice and I can`t get any response at all. It`s nice to have an attorney`s advice..thank you! I am on the fence on how to handle this guy...scare him into at least getting our raw footage back or take it all the way legally. How do you go about gettin a supenia? It`s great to know UPS has his ss# and lic#. Did anyone do a background check on this guy? I had someone contact Ibex via e-mail acting like they were interested and she has not had much of a response. This may be catching up with them. She e-mailed them and they e-mailed her back a week later asking if she was still interested. She said yes and it`s been maybe a month or so I would guess. However, I supplied her with the e-mail address and maybe they knew it was a trick because that e-mail may not be available to the public anymore. The e-mail that is available to the public is www.ibexweddings@yahoo.com if anyone wants to give it a shot! I am assuming he does this with photography as well. Maybe someone should try to contact him interested in only photography because it seems we are having trouble with videography only from what I`ve heard so far. For the girl who is getting married thank you for your sympathy. Thank goodness I only hired them for videographer. My photographer was amazing. I`ll post a new message on the message board called "Amazing Photographers" to help you avoid scum like this. From the rate of these responses I`m thinking there are a lot more people going to respond. Keep it coming ...the more people the more power.

My husband said that we have to file the lawsuit first before they can issue a subpeona. He thinks that we`d be best to file with the state Attorney General`s office and let them do the heavy lifting in tracking this guy down. He also agrees that if we could get one of the networks behind us, it would help.

Thank you for the advice! Do we do this together or separately? If separately, would it be better if we all tried to do it in the same state ? How do you go about filing this with the Attorney General? Thank you.

Thank you all for your responses. I have a picture of Alex. I have two pictures from the wedding. One is of Alex and one is of the woman she brought with him, if this woman is his wife then she is NOT pregnant in the picture. If you email me at nbhatnag@yahoo.com, I will email these pictures to you. Also, when I was contacted in January, it was through email. And the email address was not the same one listed on his current website. I tried playing nice too but it didn`t work. Playing mean didn`t work either. I too had a friend try to contact him as well. This did not work. To be honest, at this point, I am not even sure he even had taped the wedding. He was there with the video camera but I can`t even gurrantee that footage was taped. We too had an amazing photographer. Hefner Photography. He pretty much captured every moment of our two day wedding event.
Question: Can your husband file for all of us with the Attorney General`s office? Or can you give us all the information we need to file with them?
I highly suggest we stick together. I know we would all LOVE the raw footage, but at this point we don`t even know if he has any and if he does then we don`t know the state as which it was in. According to my family, he was out smoking more than he was filming and didn`t capture any of the footage agreed upon in the contract.
According to my husband, frauding for an amount over $6000 is considered a felony. If this is the case, then we should be able to file charges against this man.
I plan on doing some research next week to see what I need to do to place some claim with the FBI. I don`t know if it`s a long shot but I`d rather try and get denied than not try and never know at this point.

HELLO LADIES, I JUST WANT YOU TO KNOW THAT MAYBE YOU CAN GOOGLE HIM OR GO UNDER PEOPLE FINDERS. I FOUND MY FATHER AFTER 28 YEARS. YOU MIGHT HAVE TO PAY A SMALL FEE BUT IT IS SOOOOOO WORTH IT. SEE MYSELF, IM GETTING MARRIED IN 3 MONTHS AND I CANT EVEN GET OVER WHAT YOU LADIES WENT THROUGH. I WOULD BE SO HURT, THOSE WERE SUPPOSE TO BE MEMORIES TO LAST A LIFETIME. IT IS ALL LOST BECAUSE OF A SCUM BAG. JUST REMEMBER WHAT COMES AROUND GOES AROUND. SOME JERK TOOK THAT AWAY FROM ALL OF YOU. I ALREADY TRIED TO EMAIL HIM SO I WILL LET YOU KNOW IF I GET A RESPOND.BEST WISHES TO ALL OF YOU

To All:
I have found a website for where you file Internet Complaint`s. Please go to this website and file a complaint regarding Ibex Studios Ibex Weddings Ibex Productions. Thank you. Http://www.ic3.gov/complaint/

I wanted to let you all know that I received an email last night from Alex, I persume, asking for an address to send the raw footage. Did anyone else receive the same type of email?

I`ve read this string and am disgusted.

Here`s an idea for tracking this man down:
Many news channels have the "Investigation Teams" that investigate and report fraud.

Maybe everyone can send complaints to one that you agree on (since victims are scattered throughout the country). I`m sure they could probably track him down.

Plus, you`ll get some vindication if they report it (and this is big enough, with multiple victims being robbed of memories, that they will if they break it).

Good luck.

Good news!!!!. I just received an email from a researcher at Target 5 (NBC) investigations asking for my phone number to discuss this further. Everyone keep your fingers crossed. Hopefully they`ll be able to help us get to the bottom of this!!!!!!!

If you want to catch him with police on hand call and schedule a last minute wedding in two days for him to videotape tell them it will all be paid in cash that day before he starts videotaping because the parents who are paying are en route to attend the wedding. The bride and groom cannot offer payment because they have no credit card or bank account yet. If you want to bust several at once Make it a large wedding and request 3 videographers......just a suggestion