It seems no matter how hard we try, Rodney Bowling, con artist extraordinaire, just won’t disappear. When we first met the entrepreneur, he was soliciting contestants for reality television shows that never aired and scamming 10-year-olds out of their talent show earnings [“Reality Bites,” December 12, 2005]. When we finally reached Bowling, he told us he was moving to Arizona. Now he’s back, scamming a whole new generation of employees.
In June, he placed an ad in Scene, saying he needed promotional models for a golf event. Bowling had started a new company, which generated contact information for enterprising businesses looking for new sales leads. At this particular event, models would be paid $12 an hour to coerce contact information from attendees. In exchange for giving out their name and phone numbers –and answering just a few small questions about their lifestyles– attendees would be given a chance to win either a Hummer or a $30,000 cash prize.
Of course, Bowling employees say there was no actual Hummer – nor was there a cash prize. And those $12-an-hour paychecks never materialized either. When employees complained, they got the famous Rod Bowling runaround.
“It is unfortunate that you think bad things about me,” he woundedly wrote one former employee in July. “I can show you 10 magazines and newspaper articles from Michigan talking about the success of my company. Even being awarded the most successful business person in Michigan.”
The problem, Bowling told employees, was that his new company, BigPlanet Media, was so hopping he didn’t have time to take care of minute details …like paying people. There are now five Better Bureau Business complaints the company.
“I’ve accepted that Rod’s never going to pay me,” says former employee Sonora Cox. “But I want everyone else to know about him.” – Rebecca Meiser

This article appears in Aug 8-14, 2007.

10 replies on “Disappearing Hummers & Missing Paychecks: Rodney Bowling is Back to Scamming his Employees”

  1. Rod Bowling is still at it his big game media company just got kicked out of a local college buisness center for some very scrupulus practices. And now people are looking for him

  2. yes! this is true! myself and another young lady were “employed” by him and he got kicked out of COSE’s small business center around January 26 this year. he tried to say that it was due to complaints about my co-worker but we already knew he was up to no good…it was just too late for us to do anything about it…we have yet to get paid because he bounced our paychecks as well and clearly, there is nothing we can do about it. please be warned: ROD BOWLING IS A SCAM ARTIST AND CANNOT BE TRUSTED.

  3. I gave Rod Bowling a check and then read these comments and got very nervous. He actually came through on everything that he said he was going to do! I am very pleased with the services that he supplied to our company. I later asked him what all the negative press was about and he explained that it was difficult to get his business started and like many other businesses had problems at the beginning. I applaud him for continuing to try when many others would have quit. He explained how the Hummer promotion worked. It was an insurance policy that was purchased like many other companies purchase. But if you don’t understand how it works, it may sound like a scam.
    I am very satisfied with the work he has done for our restaurant and fitness center.

  4. We have been doing business with Rod Bowling for about 45 days and he has been doing a great job. One day he was in the office and an employee recognized him and told me to google him.
    I was surprised at the comments. Whatever his problem was in the past he must have fixed them because we are making lots of money through his program.
    Keep your head up

  5. Are you kidding me? This program works so well that I am now considering staying open!
    I own a small place in Lakewood and I was considering closing my door when in walks Rod Bowling asking for a check. His program sounded so easy and failproof and it worked just the way he said it would!
    I am just mad that i did not come up with the idea.
    Its so simple I can understand why people think its a scam. Poor and middle class peopel always think “If it sounds to good to be true it probably is”
    Well I am here to tell you it works.
    Poor people think like poor people, middle class people think like middle class and rich people think like rich people.
    If he’s not rich now he will be soon!
    I highly recommend his program!

  6. Mary…if that’s even your real name…are u kidding me??? You sound ridiculous!!! Your whole post sounds like someone spoon fed you a bunch of bullshit and paid you to say it! You are actually probably Rod using some “alias”! Rod’s so-called program feeds his pockets and screws over the business owner!!! Lucky for you if you are ‘ok’ for now because you wont be after dealing with him!!! And since he is so wonderful, tell him to compensate me for the goddamn 30 days that I worked for him since he BOUNCED MY PAYCHECK AND NEVER FINISHED PAYING ME!!!

  7. HELLO ALL; IT HAS BEEN BROUGHT TO MY ATTENTION THAT THIS RODNEY BOWLING “ROD” IS CURRENTLY LIVING IN DUNWOODY(ATLANTA) GEORGIA AND IS UP TO HIS SAME OLE SCAMS; BE AWARE CONTACT YOUR LOCAL INTERPOL TO STOP THIS CRIMINAL.

  8. If the Ponzi Scheme is named for Mr. Ponzi, how should we characterize Rod Bowling’s work-the “Gutterball” maybe?

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