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ALTON – A man arrested more than two years ago for ad scamming businesses appears to be back at it all over the Metro East, including Madison County, a Better Business Bureau investigator said Tuesday.
Charles B. “Chuck” McMillen, 40, apparently operated an alleged business called Metro-East Coupon Publication, out of a house in Collinsville until recently, BBB trade practice investigator Bill Smith said. A telephone number attached to the supposed “Spring Fling” issue of the publication has been disconnected.
In September 2007, the Grafton Police Department arrested McMillen, along with two other suspects, while they were attempting to obtain $195 for supposed advertising from the Great Rivers Tour Boat Co., which relocated from Grafton last December. McMillen was charged with misdemeanor theft by deception, which is a Class A misdemeanor, to which he pleaded guilty in April 2008.
Smith warned Tuesday that the Better Business Bureau advises owners of small businesses in Illinois, Missouri and other states to be extremely cautious when purchasing advertising from representatives of Metro-East Coupon Publication or other programs affiliated with McMillen.
Jim Saffo, owner of Bowl Haven Lanes in Alton, Riverboat Lanes in Godfrey and Airport Plaza Bowl in Bethalto, said Tuesday he OK’d one of his employees to write a check just last week for a supposed ad in the Metro-East Coupon Publication.
A man who never appeared in person had badgered Saffo by telephone since February to purchase an ad for a publication that the man told him would publish in April, Saffo recalled.
“I told him I wouldn’t write a check without looking at a proof. He put it on a piece of paper and faxed it. I said, ‘No, we won’t write a check for that,’” Saffo said.
Finally, the caller seemed to give up until last week, when a woman showed up at Bowl Haven Lanes with approximately 10 copies of the “Spring Fling” 2010 issue of Metro-East Coupon Publication for the months of April through June, Saffo recalled.
“I thought it looked like he did what he said he was going to do, and I told them to write a check,” Saffo said. “Then, I told them to tell him to never call us again. I wouldn’t run an ad in June. It was supposed to run in April. I didn’t like the way he did business.”
The man received a check for $495, said Tom White, manager of Alton Plaza Bowl.
Fred’s Towing in Alton also appears to have been taken.
“My mom put an ad in that, and they sent it by here the other day,” co-owner Rob Dublo said Tuesday. “I asked the guy the other day when he came in where these (publications) are, I never saw one, and he said, ‘They’re all over.’ I’m not satisfied. My mom took this out, and I don’t know who she dealt with.”
A man walked into Fred’s Towing in the last four days to collect on an “ad” with a copy of Metro-East Coupon Publication in hand, Dublo said. Another copy had come earlier in the mail for the Dublos to see, he said.
“Next thing you know, they call looking for the other half of their money,” Dublo said. “My mom paid him the other half of the balance; I know that. I said, ‘This ad is chintzy.’ He said he thought it looked pretty good. My kids could do better.”
Police said it appears that McMillen is behind a long-running scheme to get businesses in Missouri and Illinois to pay for advertising in fictitious newspapers, Smith said. A police investigator who looked into the scheme two years ago said then that the operation may have victimized hundreds of businesses in the bi-state area, he noted.
The most recent case involves more than 60 businesses throughout the Metro East, Smith said. The businesses include a doughnut shop in Wood River, the bowling alley in Alton and a clothing store in Edwardsville. Owners or managers of the businesses said they paid between $99 and $495 for advertising after a salesman promised them their ads would be seen by thousands of bi-state residents. Many of those who bought ads now say they have no evidence that the shopper, Metro-East Coupon Publication, ever was distributed to the general public, Smith said.
The Telegraph called businesses displayed in “ads” within an electronic pdf copy of the publication, and some of the business representatives said the companies never gave a man money or purchased an ad, yet Yellow Pages-like ads were included in the pdf that The Telegraph obtained from the Better Business Bureau serving Eastern Missouri and Southern Illinois.
BBB President and CEO Michelle Corey said it appears that McMillen and his associates may have cheated Missouri and Illinois businesses for as long as seven to 10 years.
“This seems to be a widespread and very organized scheme to take advertising money from honest, hardworking business people,” she said. “These people thought they were buying ads to help their businesses thrive. Instead, it appears that they ended up with nothing.”
Allegedly, McMillen’s family members also are involved with him and his associations. His sister, Chondis Cooper, pleaded guilty in Lincoln County, Mo., in connection with a similar case in February 2008. Lincoln County court records show that a relative of McMillen told police in that case that McMillen had started the scam in early 2000 and used fictitious company names “to sell bogus advertisement spaces to companies and to con companies into believing they have past-due bills with his company.”
When the Better Business Bureau telephoned Metro-East Coupon Publication, a man who identified himself as “Kelly” and said he was a representative of Metro-East Coupon Publication told the agency by phone that the company is legitimate, Smith said.
“We’ve got a publication in hand,” he said, according to a BBB release.
He said 10,000 copies of the paper had been published but later increased that figure to 50,000, Smith said. “Kelly” said the publication was distributed to Wal-Mart stores, grocers, service stations and other retail locations throughout the Metro East. He declined to provide the names of any stores where the paper could be found. He said he would contact the company’s attorney and its corporate headquarters in Florida, instructing both to contact the Better Business Bureau.
Smith said the BBB has not been contacted by either an attorney or anyone from Florida regarding the case. When a BBB investigator asked to speak to Charles McMillen, the man said McMillen was not available. He described McMillen as a supervisor.
Invoices from Metro-East Coupon Publication list an address of 406 Bernice St. in Collinsville. The woman who owns that house said McMillen had lived there until about two weeks ago. Officials in Illinois report that McMillen now lives in an apartment in Edwardsville.
Concerned business owners or managers can call (314) 645-3300.
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