400 Actors Were Cheated in Agency Scam, Police Say

A bogus talent agency that took money from aspiring actors and offered false promises of motion picture work in return is believed to have defrauded as many as 400 people, Los Angeles police said Friday.

However, Lt. Gabe Ornelas of the West Los Angeles Division said detectives do not know the identities of the two women and man who operated Fantasy Photo Film Casting Studio, which provided nothing but fantasies to would-be actors and models who paid fees ranging from $25 to $40 during its five months of operation.

“It was a scam,” he said. “People were gullible enough to think the agency could guarantee them a job.”

People responding to newspaper ads paid $25 to register with the agency and an extra $15 to make a video, Ornelas said. The clients were later told to report for work at a supposedly prearranged movie location or photo sessions and discovered too late that they did not exist. One man, for example, was sent to a non-existent intersection, Ornelas said.

When the clients later showed up to complain at Fantasy Photo Film offices at 500 S. Sepulveda Blvd., they discovered the office vacant and the operators gone.

The owners of the building that housed the office told investigators that Fantasy Photo Film seemed legitimate and had always paid the rent on time, before abruptly leaving, Ornelas said. The operators used false identities.

“Everything was fictitious,” he said.

Thus far, the police have received 10 complaints concerning the outfit over the past three weeks, Ornelas said. Investigators suspect that between 200 and 400 people were defrauded, based on long lines that were reported to have stretched outside the office. People who believe that they were victimized by the operations can file complaints at any Los Angeles police station, he said.