A church here in the Sioux Empire was scammed out of thousands of dollars recently by a phony asphalt company.

The church, who chose not be identified, needed some major work done to their parking lot and thought they had found a fair-priced, reputable, company to do the job. Instead, they ended up getting ripped off to the tune of $16,000!

The Better Business Bureau has been tracking this phony asphalt company working the area for some time now. According to Jessie Schmidt with the BBB, the company uses the name Joseph Stanley with A&M Asphalt Roads & Parking Lots.

Schmidt says they've typically been targeting rural residences, churches, and schools.

Right now the BBB is fixed on catching them before they pave their way to more profits.

In the case of this church, the BBB said the bogus company asked for the $16,000 up front, then only completed part of the project, claiming they needed to go get more asphalt to finish the job. They hit the road with the money and never returned.

How can you avoid having something like this happen to you? Here are a few tips from experts. First, never pay for work that hasn't been completed. If you do end up getting scammed, always file a report with police and the Better Business Bureau. Doing that goes a long way in helping stop phony companies and preventing others from getting ripped off.

Finally, you should always call another company to compare prices.

To make matters worse for the church, they actually ended up getting charged nearly three times more than what the job is normally worth by the phony pavement company.

A lesson learned the hard way!

Source: KDLT TV

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