My niece went to an open call last night for an agency called 'The Young Agency'. I preped my brother/sister in law on what are the do's and dont's. Does anyone know about that agency? It sounds fishy. Here is the email they received today.

Nice meeting with you last night and, as promised, attached is the info and the photo shoot form for the fashion model shoot for XXXXXX that we can schedule with one of the top photo teams we know and work with (there are some great photographers like Brad setting up shoots in July that would be a great fit, so we can hurry and try to get on their schedule).

Attached is the photo shoot form so please fill it out and either email it, fax it, or bring it back to our agency ASAP so we can get her registered for the shoot (the photographer's office will call you to set up the exact shoot day and time with you). As you know, we are able to help with $400 towards the photo shoot amount (the regular price of the photo shoot is $1,145 so now it is $745), so hopefully that helps!

You will also notice on the form that I added the Modeling and Acting workshops that we talked about (the workshops are normally $450, but we are able to help with $350 of them so they are only $100 or $200 for both; she does not have to take them but since we are pretty much paying for them she should). The workshops look like they will start towards the end of July, but we will give you the exact start dates and times once we get them.

So, we are helping with $400 of the shoot, $350 of the Modeling workshop, and $350 of the Acting workshop which all in all means we are helping with $1,100 which is great!

Once we get the form back from you, we will send your info to the photographer and their office will call you to set up the date, time, and location of the shoot and go over everything with you. You/her can start going through magazines looking for hair and styling ideas as well, but if you are not sure what look you are going for, they will do everything for you. You will also start to receive all of the castings from our booking managers right away so look out for those as she will be eligible to audition for things pretty quick.

I will just present you with what I found by a simple Google search. Here is the link:

http://www.bbb.org/central-nor...-86000917/complaints

They have an A business rating with the BBB but if you look further you will see 8 complaints. Yes that is 8 complaints.

Here is a nother link I found.

http://scamagencies.blogspot.c...ings-in-arizona.html

and another:
This one sound just like the email received:
What a scam this place is.

What a scam this place is. was interested in seeing if my 11 month old son should get into the talent biz and when I went to the agency I waited 3 hours through a casting call just to have them tell me that for $788 my son could be a star. $788 for professional headshots through their photographer (you couldn't go to anyone else) )After doing some research I learned this is a common scam. You should never have to use an Agents photographer and no agency requires professional headshots of children under 2. Two other agencies in AZ offered my son a contract (Dani's Agency and Signature Models and Talent) without requiring $788 worth of headshots. In fact all they asked for was a one time payment of $75 to put my son's photos (the ones I took) on the website. Do not go here! Go with an agency that is licensed with the Screen Actors Guild. For more info: http://www.becomeababymodel.co...-agencies-scams.html or http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/

Here's the link to the previous post.

http://www.yellowpages.com/pho...n-agency-div-9436463

Yes this is a scam. You should never have your agent force you to go to a certain photographer.

They aren't a SAG-AFTRA franchised agent.

I hate to be blunt but here's the truth. There is no shortage of people wanting to be famous. These people in AZ are preying on people's desire to be famous. It unnerves me to see this.

Just to give you an idea of pricing. In LA headshots range from $425-$600.00. Sometimes more if you have a ton of changes and a ton of shots and a make-up artist.

I'm a guy. I spent $60.00 cash. Had one shirt. Two different locations and booked work with that photo.

I'm just saying.

I love how they write it like that are doing you a favor by helping you our with the cost of this.

Run. Seriously run.

Robert Black
Dani Green
Leighton Agency

Not an endorsement but those three are SAG-AFTRA and they are in AZ.

The young agency is a scam, I'm in AZ and am with Dani's Agency. They're great :]

The only 5 agencies you should seek out are:

Danis Agency
Leighton Agency
Ford Robert Black
Signature
& I believe Deborah Maddox was just recently made SAG as well

NEVER take training from an agent, as real agents don't train their clients. An agency may recommend a photographer but even that can be fishy, my agent has a list of like 12 photographers they recommend but as long as the headshots are professional they don't care.

Hope that helps

Also, Arizona Actor and Model Management (AMAM) just went SAG/AFTRA as well.