Advertising scam targets local businesses
You’ll want to keep an eye out for a possible advertising scam targeting small businesses.
One local man paid $200 for an ad that never ran. He is now out of his money and left with more questions than answers.
The company in question is known as Advanced Media Publications, LLC, based in Florida. This is not the first complaint against the company by a Missouri company.
ABC 17 News made several attempts to get in touch with the company to ask about the accusations, but the business seems to have disappeared.
Patrick Davis installs home theater systems in mid-Missouri. Davis says that as a small-business owner, advertising is very important if you want to expand.
So, when Advanced Media Publications called him to see if he wanted to run an ad in Golf and Leisure magazine, he was interested.
Excited for this opportunity, Davis says he began emailing with a man known as Evan.
A graphic designer at the company designed his ad and Davis paid Evan $200.
The ad was supposed to run in August 2012 and the magazine was to be distributed to 10 golf courses in the St. Louis area.
When the ad never ran, Davis tried contacting the company, all phones were disconnected and the email addresses he had were no longer valid.
On its website, Advanced Media Publications claims to be in good standing with the chamber of commerce and claims to have an A- rating with the Better Business Bureau.
When we investigated both claims they proved to be untrue.
The Chamber of Commerce in Delray, Fla. had not heard of the company and we found out the company is not even accredited with the BBB.
We also found other complaints from business owners online who never received what they paid for.
Davis encourages other business owners to research advertising companies they want to work with and to always be cautious.
We also did a little digging into the background of one of the people in charge of the company and found he was arrested in 2009 on a several charges including drugs.
This company has a history of finding businesses online and contacting them by phone.
