How to spot and separate a child acting / modeling scam from real opportunities.
The showbiz industry is filled with unscrupulous companies that pray on unsuspecting parents. The scammers know their targets well. They know that ALL parents think their children are talented, beautiful and smart. They know that proud parents want their children to be happy and succeed. They also know that all parents think their child has that “something special” quality to be the next big child star.
The truth is… we all have kids. They are all great and cute. There are millions of them and millions of parents who can be taken by sales pitches that feed the need to hear “Your kid should be a star”.
Here is how the scam works…
You answer a casting notice, get approached in a mall, or even get a phone call after filling something out online. The sales person pretending to be in the industry and posing as a casting director, agent or some other title tells you your child is “perfect” and would like you to audition for some part.
Excited you go to the audition with your kid in tow. Once there you realize that there are 100’s of others there and that it is not a “real” audition. There is no part to fill, script to memorize or production company there. It is a sales meeting and you are in the audience. Someone goes up and reads a pitch to all the excited kids and parents. They tell you your kids were chosen to be a part of the showbiz industry. They go into how much fame and fortune the kids will achieve. Every word spoken is meant to excite your child to a point where it would break their heart if you said “no” at the end.
Sometimes, they pull you and your child into a room and make your child read a couple lines for them. They do this to make the entire experience seem more legit. The reading is meaningless because there is no real part you are reading for…. it’s all an act.
Now comes the end… What do you need to do to make your child’s dreams come true? Pay up. What else. This entire sales session was meant to pump you guys up to pay for expensive, inferior classes, worthless acting workshops and poor quality portfolios. They have now convinced your child that “if only” their parents would cough up the 1000’s, they would be stars. They tell you that there are tons of companies who need “new faces”… and miraculously, can’t find them in the sea of over population outside. “New faces” and cute kids are hard to come by and companies will pay fortunes, they stop short of trying to sell you the Brooklyn Bridge. You and your child MUST buy their services or their dreams of stardom can never be.
At this point, the scammers expect proud parents to fold into the pressures of “mom, please” and pay the cash. And, luckily for them, many do.
How to protect yourself and your child
Do not believe anyone who approaches you out of the blue. The scammers pay people to hang out at malls and shopping centers to sign up kids for these things… It’s all fake.
Be very careful when answering open call and auditions. When a real production company needs someone, they need someone specific, as in 8-9 year old Indian girl who can ride a horse. If you go to a casting and see tons of kids with nothing in common of different age groups, then it’s most likely a scam and be very skeptical.
If it turns out to be a sales meeting, run. DO NOT allow your child to sit in.
NEVER pay up front fees for anything. This is supposed to be a job — meaning YOU get paid.
ALWAYS do your research. Google company names, agent names, etc. If you find nothing at all then it may be fake. Legit companies have tons of info available about them and their employees. Many companies that operate in the gray change names and locations often. Finding very little or no information at all should be a red flag.
Learn to read between the lines.
Their commissions depend on making you feel special and selected for something special. They have honed their sales pitch and know how to pull heart strings.
this is from the ftc
Unscrupulous model and talent scouts have their acts down. Take a look at what is said and what it means.
“We’re scouting for people with your ‘look’ to model and act.” – I need to sign up as many people as possible. My commission depends on it.
“Your deposit is totally refundable.” – Your deposit is refundable only if you meet very strict refund conditions.
“You must be specially selected for our program. Our talent experts will carefully evaluate your chances at success in the field and will only accept a few people into our program.” – We take everyone with money.
“There’s a guaranteed refund if you’re not accepted into the program.” – Everyone’s accepted so you can forget the refund.
“You can’t afford our fees? No problem. You can work them off with the high-paying jobs we’ll get you.” – We demand payment, whether or not you get work.
“Commissions from our clients are our major source of income.” – Our income comes from the fees we charge suckers like you.
“I saw your child’s photo and think she is perfect for ‘fill in blank’ , the job pays $800 a day, I would like to submit her to the job “ – for a fee I will forward her info to the other scammer I found in a free CraigsList ad for kid auditions.
It is up to you to protect your child! All the above is unethical but NOT illegal. Authorities will not help you when you lose your money and your child gets no work.
These days there is little work for kids with years of training living in large markets whose families are in the business. The last thing a legit casting director for an ad campaign will do is travel small town malls seeking talent. Stay grounded in reality and never allow high pressure sales tactics to sway your judgement.
The Nigerian 419 scam and the acting twist.
If you think it’s unscrupulous sales people praying on dreams of fame and fortune, think again. The Nigerians entered the act as well. They are posting fake casting calls, trolling online profiles and contacting wanna bees with checks in hand.
How it works is they contact you through a submission through CraigsList, any online casting call, an email or a contact on a acting profile. They tell you they are casting directors and have cast you for a high paying role in your city. They love you so much from your pic that they will pre-pay you for the shoot… COOL! right? ahhh, wrong!
They send you a fake cashier’s check from an international bank. You are requested to keep your pay and forward the remainder to their crew for the shoot via western union. Your bank cashes the check and you forward the rest as told. 2 days later your bank holds you accountable for the thousands of dollars you withdrew against a fake check.
Authorities can not help you and you are left holding the bag. You cashed a check from a bad source against your account! These people are in Africa, US authorities can not touch them and they know it!
How to Get your child into Acting for “real”
Forget about fame and fortune and concentrate on your kid having fun with it and improving their skills.
Get your child involved in school plays, local theater groups and local student film projects. None of these will pay a dime but will give your child the experience needed to get an agent. In small markets, agents may not always be required.
Find out what is being filmed in your area and contact the legit casting companies. Join their lists. Most cities have a few background agencies that allow anyone to register for a small fee and many casting directors hold monthly open auditions for new talent.
Many states have websites dedicated to the film industry and production in the state. They are a good source of local info for small markets.
Check with Union sites. SAG, AFTRA, Actors Equity, all have lists of licensed agents and other valuable information.
The only real way into the industry is with a resume, training, hard work and an agent. An agent will not see your child unless they have some experience and training. Send your child to community acting classes and local workshops. Network with other families that are involved within your community.
Once you get an agent, it will be up to you to get your child to the auditions your agent sends you on. Be ready for lots of disappointment. This is not easy work. For every small gig your child lands there will be dozens he didn’t. If your child enjoys it and has a true passion for the art, he will succeed.
Thx to all that have contributed to this thread. I read all this at 11:00 pm plus a bunch of other stuff….. thank god. A modelandtalent.tv guy@ Pittsburgh “search”( Ron the model with a “fro-hawk” texts me at 10 pm….you made second cut for your kid …… with be prepared to “pay for your package” line. We DIDN’T go. I just think of the new parents that coughed up money they probably didn’t even have……SAD…real SAD.
OH, I got instant water for sale too.:just add water but water is not included. I case someone wants to part with more of their hard earned cash.
They had the current Red Ranger (Ryan)from Power Rangers. He was cool enough. He shared his success story. Nobody in that room helped him with his career though. The funny part is he was saying how important it was to have a website ,facebook and instagram to promote your child. You can’t find content about these people, only the successful agents have actually content. I doubt dude had a clue about the “service”.
$1900-$7900 were the packages. I doubt anyone ever makes it back. Search the castinghub and this lady’s name pops up too. They don’t lie to you and I’m sure they do exactly what they say…but they end result is it is BS that wont propel your child to the “BIZ”. They will cross the wrong person…I hope that person’s Judge is cool about it.
My daughter recently did auditions for a so called Disney ABC.. she is 18 and this was in Calif.. then she got called back.. from a James Richer for an acting class/school for a week for over 6000, it is in L.A to take place in Oakwood Apts? I called and he listed off ALL of the things the money is for and that actors sponsor this.. Zak and cody actors.. etc. Do you have any information about this? Worried my daughter who is 18 will be taken advantage of and her hard earned money taken also. Thank you.
I think i got scammed; how do I go about to retrieving my deposit.
Never heard of them. It’s not often easy getting a refund because you may have signed a contract. The way many companies do it is the sales people promise the world but the contract states differently. The fine print at the bottom of that site states they do nothing other than make you a internet profile…. is not an employment agency, school, performing arts academy, management company or a talent agency. … does not engage in training, procuring, offering, promising, or attempting to procure employment or engagements for artists. … only provides Internet exposure.
Their own documentation pretty much says they CAN NOT get you work.
Sometimes the Sate Attorney Generals have stepped in, when many complain.
I would try calling and asking for a refund. The BBB may also be able to help. Companies would usually give a refund than take the bad press.
We just experienced the same pitch from Casthub which is just another incarnation of the same type of business and probably of the same business Casting Hub. We went to the first “meeting” or audition yesterday and last night the sales pitch came for the Follow up visit today with a requirement for almost $8,000. I really feel terrible that there may be people today actually trying to come up with that money and falling for this complete SCAM. If you listen very carefully when the service is described it is nothing more than a website to store your childs profile and pictures which “YOU” can choose to forward (email)to an agent who will take his normal percentage of any work your child receives. The other thing your readers should keep in mind is that scammers have ways of keeping a low profile on the internet such as changing Domain Names (Casting Hub to casthub.tv) and that US corporate LAW is meant to protect the individuals running companies through various legal structures so umbrella LLC’s etc. make it very hard for people to come home and just Google the company that is claiming to be able to help them. Several people said it best that you dont pay several thousand dollars for the Right to be able to be seen by a talent agent. You work directly with a talent agent who is incented via commision to provide you with work and therefore accept people who are most likely to obtain work.
DONT Fall for this SCAM casthub.tv Casthub
Reply
Unfortunately people still do not understand how the process works and salespeople can easily convince newbies that getting “discovered” is as easy as paying money, getting a profile on a site nobody visits, and applying to auditions using that profile. Problem is those casting calls most likely are pulled from other sites. The info about submission instructions and other pertinent info is (Union Status) conveniently deleted because submission info is normally very specific. If the submission guidelines aren’t followed, the submission gets trashed. Most casting directors have a system for this and they DO NOT want links to external sites, they want photos attached and the contact format they specify. (You can look through the notices on this site to see what I mean).
Some scammy sites do not give you the actual email address for submission, they ‘forward’ it for you. They hide the email for a reason, they DO NOT want you to be able to get the ‘bounced’ messages when these submissions get returned, or marked as spam. One company I know of had a 95% failure rate on all submissions sent through the system (if 100 people applied, maybe 5 actually made it to the casting director, who then probably trashed it for not following their submission guidelines). The people wasting their time submitting didn’t know it never got there.
Talent agents also have submission guidelines. You need to contact them directly to find out what their process is, then follow it. You do not pay money for this, submitting your information to talent agents is free.
The site you mentioned just says “Its a networking site”, not responsible for getting you employment in any way. So yeah, basically they want money for you to have a profile. If you want to network with casting directors, etc. check Facebook. The profiles are free and most casting companies have pages where you can communicate with them directly. Agencies also have Facebook pages where they announce their open calls for new talent.
Today I went to an audition for castinghub and afterwards when I got home I read online that they are just a big fat scam. They take peoples dreams and crush them. All they do is tell you how great you are then next thing you know you sign a contract that gives up your cancellation rights. They just want money. When I went there today, the short lady was getting everyone all excited for nothing. She’s just like some stupid sales person who wants you to pay 3,000 dollars. It didn’t seem like the “judges” really cared anyway they just care about how much you pay. Also they lie about their connections with disney and nickelodeon. There are not that many jobs for children anyway maybe for young adults but for children it’s like the parents pay “half” but their kids don’t even get enough work for it to be worth it. This character dean from wizards of waverly place came and told us about how he became famous. He said all he did was smile at the camera and he was in. All he is trying to do is get people’s hopes up just cause he possibly got paid. castinghub is a total waste of money and your dignity so watch your back.
I was very close to falling for the same scam. I was so lucky that my sister stopped me from making such a huge mistake. I have been reading about others experiences here and in other forums and am still angry about the situation.
I was leaving a department store with my 6 year old daughter and we were approached by a woman who told us my daughter would be perfect for movies and TV commercials. She signed us up for an audition taking place at a local hotel. The hotel part was strange and I asked why a rented conference room rather than her office. She told us it was because these were special auditions and they needed extra space. So I took my daughter. When we got there my daughter was given a few lines to memorize and we watched a presentation. There were dozens of kids there ages ranging from toddlers to teens. One by one they called us in for the “audition”. My daughter read her lines and the woman praised her for how well she did. She told us that my daughter is the best she has seen and would love for her to go further. She said if my daughter was selected, she would call later that night. She said only 1 in 100 kids will be selected and they will make the decision in a meeting that may run late so she may call between 9PM and Midnight with good news.
Around 11 PM she called and told us we made the grade and to come in the morning for another interview. Needless to say I was so excited as was my daughter. My daughter wanted to call everyone she got picked. So at 11 PM we called my mom and my sister. My daughter did not want to say anything to anyone until she knew for sure that she got picked.
My sister told me it didn’t sound right and sounded like a job one of her friends had just quit. I said they hadn’t asked for any money but I would call her friend right now. I did call and what he told me made me livid.
He said he had applied for a sales job through a Craigslist ad. The ad said he could make over $1000 a day to start. He got the job and was told he was being trained to be a talent scout. His job was to find people with children outside of malls and try to get them to come to an audition. The auditions were on weekends. He was told that the kids talent packages ran $2,000 to $10,000 and he would get 5% if someone he signed up ended up paying money. Once training was complete, he would make 40% if he could close them as well. He signed parents up all week. He was basically told to go to malls in upscale neighborhoods, look for people who are well dressed, who looked ‘well off financially’, approach them, explain he is a talent scout who just happened to notice how cute the child was, and get them to attend the audition.
He said he did that all week and on Saturday went to what they called the ‘audition’. At the ‘audition’ he greeted and sat people. Since he was training, he would sit in on a few interviews with the people he brought in.
Here are the tips he got from other sales people / talent scouts:
Don’t waste time on people who obviously can’t afford it. If their biggest concern is how much money their child will make because they need the cash, move on.
If people ask too many questions about what they are auditioning for, ask for references or seem overly skeptical, move on.
Don’t mention money until you think you have them, could be 1 interview, could be more, but after asking for money give them a tight deadline and they have a list of excuses to use as to why they must do this today, such as spot will go to someone else.
he said since the job was commission based they were allowed to judge how much to charge. Some people paid $2,000 and others $9,000, for the exact same thing. He said some of the good closers made thousands because if only 2 people agreed to pay $5,000 each thats a $4,000 paycheck for that day.
He said after a week he quit because he felt bad because he knew it was a scam, there was NO audition for anything, he was not a real talent scout, and he knew some of the people couldn’t afford it, but did it because their kids wanted to be stars so badly.
Anyway, after he told me all that, I still went to the interview in the morning because I thought maybe, just maybe, this was the real thing and nobody had asked for money yet. Anyway, at the interview that morning they asked me to sign a contract and pay $3500 for ‘promotion’ of my daughter. It was a scam and my daughter was heartbroken over it.
I am so angry that they are allowed to get away with this. I am more angry at myself. All the red flags were there, I just chose to ignore them. Why would a Hollywood talent scout be hanging out in a mall parking lot. If it was a random occurrence that she spotted my daughter, why would she hand me a flyer with the address to go to? It looked like a sales presentation. Business people have offices and probably would not call at 11PM on a Saturday. I just really wanted to believe and should have known better. I am just so lucky I found out before they got any money out of me because I probably would have paid.
can you tell me why my post was not approved? Certainly whatever the objection, you could have edited parts that you found objectionable…..
Thanks for your response, Daniel P.
It is approved, just takes a bit of time due to the insane amounts of spam I get. 🙂
Thanks for the website, I found it helpful in determining talent agent scams. I’m convinced that talent agents should get paid the same way any staffing agen(t/cy) would make money and that’s by getting a percentage of the job/hourly rate. I was already going to skip the “talent agency” in question because their BBB rating, but now I know how to identify a talent scam in general.
Here’s an update to this “Britni Larsen” scammer from the website of a private investigation company. Source is referenced at end of post.
Britni Larson is actually BRANDON K. WRIGHT (per source):
“Various Social Security Numbers
Date of birth: 05/02/1986
Home location: London, Ontario
Nationality: Canadian
LAST KNOWN PHONE NUMBERS
(removed)
LAST KNOWN EMAIL’S
wrightsophia50@gmail.com
Brandonk930@gmail.com
Britni11031@yahoo.com <<<<<<< This is the address used on this site
Blake.griffin89@aol.com
Latin_longoria@aol.com
John.c.depp.jd@gmail.com
Elizabeth.bowers@aol.com
Corra_james@gmx.com
Sscarter@aol.com
Kanye_w@live.ca
LAST KNOWN ADDRESSES
113 Misenheimer Road, NE, Milledgeville, Ga. 31061
Motel 6 – Columbus, Ohio
Motel 6 – Throughout Orange County in California
Motel 6 – Throughout Los Angeles County in California
11941 Saltair Terrace, Los Angeles, Ca. 90049
Motel 6 Rosemead 1001 S San Gabriel Blvd Rosemead, CA 91770
427 Westbourne Drive West Hollywood, Ca 90048-1911
7374 W. Lake Mead Blvd Ste 100, Las Vegas NV 89128
18-35 Waterman Ave, London, ON N6C 5T4
191 Arbour Glen Cres, London, ON N5Y 2A4
Actors and models be warned that Brandon Wright is a compulsive liar and a con-artist. Brandon has lured five (and counting) aspiring male models with false promises and fake modeling campaigns.
Brandon (AKA John Wright, Brandon Brockwood, Brandon Saucier, Brandon Brockwood-Saucier, Brandon Martinez, Britni Larsen, Alex Simon, Sara Conner, Layla Marie Parker, Sara Kern and Brandon Kenneth) alleges that he is a modeling agent and event manager. He claims to work for and/or have a professional affiliation with Eva Longoria, Creative Artists Agency/CAA, Charlie Sheen, Johnny Depp, Kanye West and many other celebrities. Brandon has fraudulently maintained he could get one actor a recurring role on "True Blood" and another a high-paying role in a Robert DeNiro film, neither of which he has any affiliation with. Brandon is portraying himself as a manager with Kids 2 Fame, Kids Talent Network, and The Talent Network. "
Source of information above, including photo of the guy and his assistant can be found here: arielpi.com/Criminal_Watch.php
I took my 5 year old daughter to a Casting Hub audition yesterday and she got a call back. I was so excited for her, but I was very uneasy about the information I was given. The first thing I was skeptical about was that he asked me if I would have the correct payment method. Of course I said yes to continue to hear his pitch. Then he told me he was only able to give out 1 $2000 scholarship. Really? What are we talking about right now? The ad on the radio station said this was an audition for Disney or to perform with Taylor Swift or Justin Beiber and now it’s turned into something I have to pay for? So I’m assuming the script they emailed me was a complete joke. If so, I think Life Savrors should know this company is using them in their scam and should sue. Anyway, I’m suppose to take my daughter in today, but after reading these comments starting back at the beginning of 2012 and my gut feeling, I will not be putting my baby through this. Luckily, she was asleep when I got the call so I didn’t get the chance to tell her and get her hopes up. But if she asks about it today or anytime in the future, I will make something up so her feelings don’t get hurt! These people should be ashamed and I hope NO ONE in Tampa falls for this crap. And it’s a shame that the actor from Wizards Of Waverly place is involved, bet Selena would never be caught associating herself with this type of ordeal. CASTING HUB IS A FRAUD! Do research! Luckily I did cause I have realized you should NEVER have to pay up front!!
RE: upset mommy and CA: They are NOT BBB Accredited, however, they just have a BBB listing. The A+ rating is just because they “resolved” the issues. They have different ratings in different states, as well, it seems and are registered everywhere from DE to IL to UT. I know several real talent agents and they all say the same thing, you NEVER ever pay for representation up front. It’s a percentage of work sold, usually 15 – 20% on the modeling side, too. They said anyone that asks you to pay anything like that up front is a con.
And the other part is that they never go to any “network” organizations. One guy said that in the 25 years he’s been an agent, he’d gotten 3 people from a “school” for talent. Everyone else did it the old fashioned way, 1 profle head shot, 1 front on headshot, 1 full body headshot. Fully clothed, nothing cutesy, just a natural photo of the person smiling and no professional shots, just a nice clear photo in good lighting. You send the whole thing in an envelope with the kids essentials on the back of the photos – Name, DOB, height, weight & contact info. and include a self-addressed stamped envelope. He says they get tons every day and they do get back to people who look like they may fit a particular requirement. But no one ever pays anyone anything up front. He said the saddest thing ever is how these scams have perpetuated themselves in one form or another for so long and how disappointed the kids are in the long run.
These people prey on the fact that everyone wants to prove their kid is different and special and stands out from the rest. Who doesn’t want that?
Does anyone know anything about Fame Under Five?
Nothing on BBB and Google only finds two separate sites with nothing but letter after letter from parents who have used them and have nothing but praise for the company. However if the company has been in business for 40 years, there would be considerable presence of them on the search engines. Coincidentally, their WHOIS info is quite similar to the dates listed with Kids 2 Fame site. Hmmm…Kids to fame starts getting terrible internet presence and then Fame Under Five suddenly appears out of thin air and wouldn’t you know it, they have the same marketing techniques as Kids 2 Fame and also want $500…Use your good judgement!
10 years ago, we paid $552 to “Audition Division LTD.”. All we got is one video and a few photoes, which have been already in garbage can long time ago. I would say,
1) if you child is really excellent, you may try (NOT even pay in front)
2) if not, better save $500 for something else, instead of feeding scammer!
I too heard an advertisement on a popular radio station about auditioning to be on Disney or nickelodeon so I called and they set my daughter up for an audition at a hotel conference center. They told us when they started their speech that we were being tested the minute we walked thru the door and that the “judges” were in fact the people that checked us in and seated us. By the time the almost 2 hour speech was up and and an actress from the show Jessie went up and spoke. We had to stand in certain lines and the auditions went pretty quickly. Well that evening we got a text message saying she made the call back list and if she made the final audition and they chose to work with her that we would discuss payments. Right then I knew it was too good to be true, don’t think I will be going back and putting my daughter thru all of that for round 2. Glad to see I’m not the only one that is NOT falling for this SCAM. Don’t fall for it! Glad I found this site.
How did you get that manager? ( If you don’t mind telling me) What company he works for or what’s his name?
Does anyone have any experience with CastingHub?
ok a little late to the game by a few years but…..First off it is a scam in the fact that you can get the casting notices all by yourself from http://www.castingnetworks.com and other “real” websites. Yes these places might get you auditions or submit you but you can do it yourself by going on the same websites they are going on!!!! You don’t have to pay any money trust me. My daughter has a manager (mind you not a national name one) and we never paid one dime for anything. No headshots, no classes, no compcards. Her agent even pays our fees for websites that her photos are up on, not us! Your child is consistently changing, facial features, teeth…… so why pay all this money to get professional photos when you send them out in 3 months they look nothing like their photo!
My daughter started 5 years ago and has gone to over 100 auditions, was in 25 commercials, 2 movies, tons if industrials, PSA’S, short films, pilots, student films, music videos and tons of print work for BMW, Barbie boxes, Magic Tree House Books, Macy’s, Knex Toys, Herhseypark, Bottom Dollar Foods, etc….. and all without paying a dime! Some clients will even reimburse you for travel expenses.
Word is if you have to pay anything and I mean anything you are being ripped off even if you get auditions or jobs from these people. You can submit your kids yourself for free most of the time. You don’t need those people to do it for you for hundreds of dollars.
Good luck! The legit agencies are out there. NEVER PAY A DIME!!!!!!! YOU CAN GET CASTING CALLS YOURSELF AND SUBMIT ON YOUR OWN…. YOU DON’T NEED THEM TO DO IT!!!
NEVER ENDING CASTING SCAM
I was, recently, a member of website Casting360 and put in my information for an MTV reality show. I received an email from Never Ending Casting which stated that I was chosen to be an extra for a pilot show filming in Hollywood on July 13th titled MTV Events. The pay would be $400-$500 depending on the director. Also, if I was cast as a model I could get paid $2000 per episode. There would be 22 episodes. The filming would take place at a location called Blackbird in Hollywood.
All I would need to do is pay a retainer fee of $75 that would cover any costs in case I didn’t show up. They claim that people don’t follow through when they make the commitment so this was necessary. What did I know? I’m new to this industry. They also claimed that transportation and lodging would be accommodated and I could choose to either fly July 11th or July 12th and would safely return by the 15th.
The $75 fee had to be paid by July 5th, but I was concerned about holiday closings, so I paid it on July 3rd. I then received another email stating that I could bring a guest too if they also wanted to pay $75. I did not, but I thought about it. On July 5th I responded to the second email that I was sent which requested personal information like my government name, social security #, flight preference, etc.
After I responded to the email with all of my information I posted a comment on Casting360’s site to let everyone know how excited I was for the opportunity, and that the site really does work. I immediately started receiving comments about how it’s a scam, and that I shouldn’t pay any retainer fee ever. I then went to the disclaimer at the bottom of their site on how to avoid scams, and this site, Never Ending Casting, was listed as a known scam. Yet, they are still allowed to post.
I immediately called my bank and they told me that I would not be allowed to dispute a fraud charge until it posts and it was still pending. Saturday morning, July 6th, I checked again and it posted so I immediately called. The charge posted at close of business on Friday, July 5th, and yet there was another pending authorization charge on July 6th. Obviously they were trying to charge again, but I caught it in time. I immediately cancelled the card, opened a fraud investigation, and got a new card.
After this I immediately panicked about providing my ss#. I contacted all the credit agencies and the FTC to put a fraud alert under my ss#. Never Ending Casting had no idea that I was onto them.
Monday, July 8th, I received an email that the location had been moved from Hollywood to New York City – conveniently near me now that they had my address. I called to get a refund, explain what I had discovered, dispute everything going on, and I received a complete run around. I was told that the second verification charge was “probably” because I was bringing a guest for another $75 fee, and yet I had never confirmed that. I called the studio they claim to have moved the filming to and realized this was just a big runaround. I also alerted the studio that a bad name was coming down on them as well for affiliation to a scam.
Never Ending Casting told me that refunding the $75 was of no consequence to them since they didn’t need the money, and yet would only refund it if I showed up to the new location on Saturday, July 13th in NYC. Bull. I told them my concerns about my ss# and Never Ending Casting claims that they had no use for that information, but it was for “them” – the casting directors who wanted to make sure a terrorist wasn’t trying to enter the plane. The imaginary plane to Hollywood that was going to be switched regardless.
SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM SCAM.
Do not trust Never Ending Casting, Mitchy Heels, Emma Armos, or Casting360 for that matter.
I was lucky enough to catch all of these things in time so that all I have to worry about is $75. I don’t think everyone else is so lucky.
All you people need to learn how to spell!! That was eight minutes of my life I will never get back. 🙁
Months ago I signed up for casting hub but I had to pay a fee of $ 4,000 and they promised I would be a star and a lot more and they where supposed to find me a commercial or something but until this day I hadn’t heard any news is this a scam please help me I don’t know what to do.
We went to CastingHub with our son today and got a call back. It sounds like lots of people received the call backs but no one actually paid the fee and wrote about their experience. I agree that agents would not ask for money up front, but CastingHub does not claim to be an agent, it claims to help promote your child to agents and therefore I can understand that they would require a payment. The cost is high between $2k to $9k depending on the package you buy. After reading several posts about the company not being registered with the BBB, I did look that up and they are in fact registered with an A+ rating. Just because they require money upfront does not make them a scam. Is there anyone who actually paid for and used the service who can respond and share their experiences with CastingHub?
Thanks
Omg guys this is crazy! I went to auditions in Dallas for casting hub today and the hotel. Poor kids, that’s the only thing that makes me sad. They were all dressed up and exited! Those Botox judges and well paid actor from wizards ruined everyone’s day and hopes. Who asks for money upfront? The lady didn’t even let me finish a script and said good Job, I will be calling you for sure. But all that was after her questions, if I work and if my husband supports me. Basically if I have money to pay those big fees. I hope they get sued! This is a huge scam!
So I went through some of the posts, not all of them… YOU DO NOT NEED TO PAY, TO GO TO AUDITIONS OR CASTING CALLS…LEGIT CASTING COMPANIES IN BOSTON…BOSTONCASTING…SOUTH SHORE CASTING…In RHODE ISLAND LDI CASTING…
SOUTH SHORE CASTING IS OWNED AND OPERATED BY JODI PURDY and you can look her up on facebook…I have moved away from Boston working on a film, but I get all casting calls and auditions notices…for FREE.
ALSO BOSTON CASTING I GET ALL FREE CASTING CALLS AND AUDITIONS THAT ARE SENT TO ME FOR FREE.
Jodi has helped cast for films such as Gone Baby Gone, The Gameplan, Mystic River and many other things, and not once has anyone have had to pay.
So for anyone that is paying for auditions, you are getting ripped off….maybe you have to pay for an agent or they take a percent…but the companies that I get casting calls and sent for certain parts, I have NEVER ONCE had to pay…I get sent emails.
If you are thinking your going to think your going to have a better opportunity than anybody else for pay thousands of dollars, and that is going to give you a bigger opportunity than anybody else, your wrong.
I think people have great sales pitches and like to sucker people in.
Look for Jodi Purdy on the internet on facebook or for her casting company called South Shore Casting…oh and better yet, you can even find her on IMDB.COM and
it will list films she helped to cast.
Angela Peri runs Boston Casting….look these two women up and you can see for yourself, these women are legit and on the east coast, maybe mostly Boston, and I don’t know if you can ask them about other companies in different places.
Yes maybe I did get a pay check two weeks in the mail after I had a chance to work as an extra on The Gameplan and the remake of the Women, but I still got a paycheck without paying a dime, plus other films, I don’t need to go into detail, and I haven’t time in a year or so to update my imdb page, but I actually got to work on sets.
I am not sure where each and every person is located, I only know about the things where I am from, but they are real.
Never pay for anything up front at all, never for casting calls or auditions.
You show up at casting calls, wait in two lines, one is for Sag and there is one for non-union.
Sometimes they just take a picture of you, and you had them a resume, if you can’t afford headshots at first.
More than likely if they need alot of people for a background scene, you’ll probably will get picked to be an extra.
That is how you can start, and network with people on a real film set.
I repeat never pay, if you do, you are taken for a ride.
You pay 100 of dollars for what? Taken for a ride
By the way, don’t be surprised if people are saying that they go along
with paying things up front, it could be people pretending to be a client,
but really the sales people themselves..
and no I don’t have to hide behind a fake name.
Shelly Nun-Chucks Finnegan
Anyone Know of Casting Hub? My dad thinks its a scam and I sorta do to. They rented a hotel in my area and asked for a picture of me that’s not returnable we I got there they had to take a picture of my dad and me with his ID next to his head in the picture they paid a celebrity to be there and my dad had to fill out something with all this info after 2 hours waiting being the audience, the auditions went by fast. I was a little nervous because of some of the things they said and it cost $2000 a month for them to represent you and I was like what? or there was a choice to pay $600 a week then they said they are only picking 5 kids out of each age group and my friend and I got a call 1 minute after the other. That was pretty sketchy to me is it a scam?
After hearing the commercial for a Casting call in San Antonio, asking if your child wants to be on Disney or Nickelodeon, I called in and was given a time to be at the audition. During the hour and half long speech from some guy that said he had walked the runway in Milan and New York (didn’t pay much attn to names) we were excited and full of hope for our little one. There was also a spokes person that mentioned he had worked with Selena Gomez, I didn’t recognize him. The speaker repeatedly said if your child is shy, we don’t want to work with you, if you don’t answer your phone tonight for call backs we don’t want to work with you, we will only choose 5 kids for each age category (type cast), blah blah blah. So once we got to the judge to audition, my child was very shy and the judge mentioned it’s ok he can do it tomorrow. After that, she pointed to the price in the book for marketing almost $2k and asked if we were prepared to pay if he was picked,my husband and I looked at each other with big eyes and said maybe. She also sweetened us up my mentioning I was pretty and my husband was cute. Once I came home, I did all my research and thankfully found this site. With our lack of knowledge in this industry it’s possible we could of fallen prey to this scam. When night came, I missed their call…two days later, I received at text saying thanks for the call back, my child was one in twelve that was chosen, come back tomorrow with another photo and script memorized and be prepared to make the payment for marketing. I never called them back but yet they were still trying to contact me. Needless to say, I will not be contacting them and have learned so much from this experience. Thanks to all of you that post on this site and a special thanks to the people that run this site!
You are very Welcome!
WOW.. I’m so glad I found all this information about Casting Hub. I was one of the first 200 (supposedly) that called in from a popular radio station that stated auditions were being held that could lead to TV time with Justin Bieber or Taylor Swift so of course I jumped on it for my grand-daughter Justice. (she loves Justin Bieber as do most 6 year old girls). I’m quite disappointed that the radio station didn’t do some homework on their own before sucking us into this vortex of lies. We have a 9am appointment in the morning… they gave us lines in an email for her to memorize. I noticed another unhappy attender had no lines but that’s beside the point. I’m pretty convinced it a scam but I may go just to give my grand-daughter some experience “auditioning” but without the belief it will lead to anything as advertised. I would think Justin Bieber & Taylor Swift might have something to say about them using their names in a scam as far as Michael’s plan to “take them to the cleaners” for false advertising. PS the email they sent me had pictures of 3 children that they were “congratulating” for scoring gigs on TV. Probably false too. THANK YOU FOR THE HEADS UP ~ I LOVE THE INTERNET!!!
The problem with most of the child acting scams that are advertised on the radio is that people do not pick up the actual language used. Those are created to deceive without responsibility. The commercials never say “Disney auditions for whatever show”, They say things like “Do you want to be a Disney Star? Call us now” and things along that line. They DO NOT actually say that these are auditions for Disney Casting directors for some show. That is how they get away with it… with lots of double talk, misdirection and hard sales pitches. They never say they ARE Disney!!! The sales pitch is all about you assuming it without them stating it directly.
It is the same as an ad that says “Do you love BMW’s? We do to! We have vehicles for sale for $500.” See how that works? Never said I would sell a BMW for $500.00, just some unspecified vehicle which can be anything, even a bicycle because I didn’t even say “motorized” vehicle!
It is not false advertisement because I never said that I would sell the BMW for $500.
The sales people stick to tight scripts. They will normally not say they are casting directors or talent agents or any industry terms. Rather, they say they are “talent advisors”, “casting scouts”, etc. terms that are meaningless and not regulated like a ‘talent agent’ would be.
That is why they get away with it and no one can stop them. Disney, Nickelodeon, etc. DO NOT advertise, they do not have to. As long as you know that, you will steer clear of the sales double talk. They have honed those pitches, and ran them by the lawyers to be in the clear. They never state what you are auditioning for and therefore it is most likely not false advertisement because you will never get anything like that in writing. Just steer clear and know the industry just does not work that way.
If you must go to one of these things, do not bring the child. They are depending on the child pressuring the parent into doing it because a child can’t recognize a scam the way an adult can. Go without the child to the meeting and get all the facts first. I get so many emails from very disappointed kids who say “I could have been on Disney but my parents ruined it because they did not want to pay”.
I too was fooled by them and I found this about them. This is their statement and the full article link is at the bottom. I love how they say they never promised any auditions for anything.
“Casting Hub ‘only provides internet exposure, networking resources and tools for you to match your talent with available listings of auditions and casting calls.”
In a story aired on Thursday night on KFOX14, parents who asked not to be identified for fear of litigation by Casting Hub, said they paid money for their kids to be part of a casting call for an upcoming movie or video.
Blankenship wrote, ” … Casting Hub never stated it was holding auditions for parts in upcoming shows or movies, and never guaranteed success to participants.”
they told the news they never said they had auditions for any parts. What a crock. We went there because they said they had auditions for shows.
here is the article http://www.kfoxtv.com/news/news/casting-hub-attorneys-respond-kfoxs-story/nT2Pj/
My daughter would like to participate in dancing or acting, so please can you select my daughter.
I have two husbands, 1 is sarafaras and 1 is ishaaq.
My granddaughter had an auditon with Casting Hub in Dallas today. She also was picked as 1 of the 5 and they asked her mom if she would have 2K for tomorrow. On the back page of their brochure is the Better Business Logo BBB A+ rating. We checked it out with the BBB and
not only is Casting Hub not rated, they have never applied!! The judge told my daughter they would all be flying back to Los Angeles, CA after tomorrow, but the BBB has them from Chicago, IL and so does MANTA.COM. They are very slick with the wording in their brochure but those of you that still have one, flip it over to the back page and see the logo for yourselves and then go to BBB website and read it for yourselves. I hope the BBB goes after them for fradulent advertising. This may be a first step for Micheal above to “take these pr#cks to the cleaners!”
Went to a Casting Hub audition today in Dallas. The speaker was entertaining and rather full of himself. Dan Benson “Zeke” from The Wizards of Waverly Place guy was there. Isn’t that show over now?? Seemed somewhat legit but hey, they do specialize in acting! Their marketing materials cleverly tell you what they do – a glorified depository for your photos and videos. So is Facebook.
The nice looking gentleman, Eric, that my daughter auditioned for thoughtfully called me this evening to tell me that she was “1 of 5” he was allowed to choose. I saw the “1 of 5” line used in another complaint forum, by the way. He also asked if I would be prepared to make the required registration fee. I didn’t see that in the marketing materials, but, hey, I’ll play the game and kindly said, “Sure! See you tomorrow!”
I am skeptical by nature. Their marketing materials proudly display the Better Business Bureau logo with A+ Rating underneath. Guess what?? CASTING HUB IS NOT BBB RATED!!! Go check yourself. They claim to all be flying back to Los Angeles but the company incorporated in Chicago. That was enough for me. We’re out!
FYI the chances of these ppl not being reps for kids to fame are slim to none….they just trying to reinforce their scam by hanging random entries posted on here….yes it’s not easy, however, I did it and it was free…my daughter came out in a Kmart circular and participated in a tommy hilfiger runway show many years ago where we got a check and were able to keep the clothing. Never put up a dollar, however, they demanded a lot of time, missed 4 days of work for one runway show but nonetheless it’s all about time and commitment, the only thing I recommend is headshots and you can shop around for a cheap photographer or a student photographer with connections to do it inexpensivly, best of luck guys
Is “celebrity star event legit?
The Event my bad
Does anyone know if The Event is a scam. Its a talent scouting thing for Disney and nickelodeon. They are cool with me not be able to pay the $2000 they were asking for and a lot of people say they are but they were all offended one way or another. I am so confused please help!!
Disney and Nick casting directors do not charge to audition.