We paid $450 to Posh Entertainment Group of Beverly Hills for a photo shoot just to find out that they wanted $680 more to make photo cards.

We don't have a contract or agreement. In fact most of the agreement was done over the phone. The only time I was actually in the office is to show my son to the "talent director," Duane (he doesn't have his last name on his business card).

He sent us to some photographer called Ming in downtown Los Angeles. There was also a "hair/makeup artist," but she couldn't do much for a [. . .]-year-old. The pictures he took were less than Sears quality. The lighting was very bad.

Duane took our credit card information over the phone right before the photo shoot. He made us believe before the photo shoot that $450 was our only expense and it will pay for itself once we get our first job.

A week later he called and told us that the pictures turned out great, but he needed $680 more to make the comp cards. That's when we knew we were taken.

I did a little research after that and I found out that toddlers up to 3 don't even have to have professional photos done because their look changes every 3 months.

They have an open house every Saturday to sucker more naive parents and I feel like I have to do something about it. It's not just the money! I thought that maybe you have something on them. After all, I found you on Google search by typing Posh Entertainment Group scam to find somebody with similar experience.

Angry Mother

Please e-mail as soon as possible.

Mother

I met with the photographer and he only charged me three hundred which included make-up. I was then charged for my zed cards, a book, and my pictures blown up.

In the end in one full year they sent me on one audition for girls [like her]. I was never called back again. That was my experience.

Thanks for listening,

Mother

I saw you have already a complaint in, but I just wanted to also confirm, that Posh Entertainment Group called me and told me someone referred me and they do not stand as an agency; they just want to sell people pictures or whatever.  People should be aware of this business practice and stay away from Posh and Dana.

Concerned Mother

Well, my daugther wasn't picked and the lady called my sister back the following day. So we were thinking about traveling back out to Beverly Hills for an interview.

Thankfully I saw your web site first. How dare these people hurt little children in this way. My poor daughter is now going to feel horrible.

Thank you so much for your site.

Angry Mom!!!

I was suckered, and now I'm mad!

I was recommended to Posh by my cousin, who was sought out by Posh in a mall. Seeing as how I work in the film & tv biz, you would think I would have been smarter that this, but here is what happened (it's pretty straightforward).

We went in for an initial meeting with LaJoy. LaJoy interviewed us and our then [...]-month-old. She showed us pictures of other children on their roster and told us how one kid just made "$160,000" from an Old Navy job. Talk about dangling the carrot.

We got a call a few days later and were told that they don't take everyone, but they would love to work with our daughter, but she has to get photos done. We asked how much it would all be and they said only "$550."

My partner and I decided that that was a lot of money, but we looked at it as an investment in this new adventure. We have one income now, and since my partner is home with the baby, we knew she could be around to take her to auditions.

Fast foward to after the photo shoot . . . We get a call to come in to go over the photos.

I asked LaJoy if the $550 included the cost of prints as well.

She avoided giving me a straight answer and said, "Oh, we'll talk about that when you get here."

Basically, we ended spending up another $1,100! We just got swept up in the moment. We were led to believe that we needed these professional photos and portfolio books in order to get work.

I even asked what happens when the baby changes--which is what infants do--and was told that we wouldn't need to get new photos for at least a year. She looks totally different NOW, and it's only three months later.

We soon had another meeting with Dana and found out that Posh was not the agency, but Go Models & Talent was.

I asked Dana if this was a real "agency": "Are you an agent?"

She said, "Yes."

Lies. We felt completely misled. In the interim I have spoken to several other agencies and managers. Not ONE of them ever asked for professional pictures. They were all appalled when they found out what we had done, and said all you need are new snapshots every three months because the babies change so much so often.

We now have representation with another company, a licensed agency.

I was told by a friend that one could dispute a credit card transaction for up to a year of the transaction date. We paid Posh back in [. . .] of 200[.].

I am so mad that I was led to believe we needed to get these photos done for my daughter. I am also so mad at myself, but I am willing to fight to get this money back.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated on this matter.

Thank you very much.

Angry Mother

The girl that works there, Lajoy, has scammed sooooo many people.

They claim they are not an agency when you confront them; they say they are "model management" . . . that is sooooo old. They say they have a "booking department" that books jobs. They ARE an agency!

These companies think by saying they are a model management company, they can "skirt around" the laws governing talent agencies. I heard that the DA's office was going to nail them. Also, these companies, when quoting prices, never inform consumers of how much the Zed Cards will cost. That's basically Fraud.

Anonymous

Since they went on and on how she would earn a minimum of $700 per shoot we went ahead with the head shots.  Expecting to be sent to a professional studio we were sent to the photographer's apartment!  All the photographer provided were negatives and we had to go and pay for the prints.  Once we took the prints back we had to pay for her book and cards. Another $500.00.

After 3 months of continual calling on my part we got the book.  What a joke.  It is a pleather covered cardboard with plastic sleeves not worth $500.  They then referred us to Go Talent.  When we met her new agent Mary Jo she just didn't seen real interested in my daughter.  Actually my daughter said she was afraid of her.  We haven't heard from them to date.  I am glad you are doing something to stop these [. . .] ers.  I don't care about the money but the way they have hurt my daughter is unforgivable.

Angry Mother

A few days later, before our appointment, my friend's husband looked at the grade F from the Better Business Bureau and read some of the comments and became concerned.

I called them and the woman who answered admitted to just having a meeting concerning the Better Business Bureau's grade and offered for me to write down my questions and then call back.

I did that and called back and I spoke to another woman who wanted to know who I had the appointment with.

I told her I wasn't that good with names and forgot (since I had spoken to several different people).

She treated me like I was stupid because I didn't know who I had an appointment with. This treatment made me wonder if she was trying to get me on the defensive so that I'd be less inclined to question her business practices.

I asked her about the Better Business Bureau and she said that she is going to file a suit against them.  That they just want $3,000.00 for them to join organizations to improve their reputation and she's not willing to do that.

I questioned this suit because the Better Business Bureau has a disclaimer stating that what they say may not in fact be an accurate representation of the company in question.

She said she was glad to hear that. She didn't know this and she's ready to sue them. I'm questioning who's stupid here.

"Can I ask you some questions?" I inquired.

"I don't have 20 minutes!" she snapped.

"Do you have five minutes?" I aksed, since a person in her office suggested I do this.

"I don't have the time," she answered.

This defensive attitude and treatment when I'd be a fool to not question her business after all I've read, makes me feel more certain that they have something to hide.

Another thing that did not sit well with me is the person I believed was a talent agent had originally said, "We do small things like JC Penney's and The Gap--nothing big, just for fun."

Then when another woman called to set an appointment, she mentioned television commercials, etc.

I got the feeling that they may work this way to pull parents into in slowly, string you along.

Some of the unanswered questions are as follows; maybe someone else will be able to ask them as I did or do some research:

• What do you call your business? (are they a talent agency?) (Will they say they are a model management like I read?)
• Can you explain why the Better Business Bureau says that you failed to respond to complaints and are not in compliance with law’s licensing or registration requirements?
• If we were interested in commercials and such, what is your success rate? Do you have any major clients?
• On a website, a customer claimed to only receive a list of agencies and you recommended they send the photos to these agencies. Is this true?
• Do you have a license? (Company ID #13160023, not sure what that means.)
• I've heard that children don’t need professional pictures for modeling until they are 5--is this true?

Just glad we looked into this, we wouldn't have been inclined to give $$ for photos and such, but this was a waste of our time.

Concerned Mother