How to Boil a Toad: Put a Crook Out of Business

If you’ve been reading my posts, you know I got monumentally ripped off by a brilliant liar–Brian McFate of Rocky Mountain Custom Decks and I/E Services. I am considered “nice,” but when riled I am more like a nice pit bull (with lipstick of course). My goal has been to see justice served or at least keep McFate from cheating others. Along the way I’ve learned some things I’d like to share.

How to Boil a Toad: Put a Crook Out of Business

First, purge your emotions. Cry, scream, throw things. No harming of children or animals–except toads, of course).

File a report with local law enforcement. Get all the details together in chronological order with receipts, contracts, photos, text messages, phone calls, dates and times. Be as detailed as you can. Chronic liars and cheats often cannot remember their trail of deceit. Most likely you won’t ever see your grifter in criminal court, but having a detailed case file can be important later on.

File a lien against their property. http://wiki.answers.com/Q/How_do_you_place_a_lien_on_a_property

If applicable, take your case to small claims court. In Douglas County, Colo., the amount must be less than $7,500. If it is more, you will have to file a civil suit. Which means lawyers. Ick.

File a complaint with the Better Business Bureau and the Federal Trade Commission.

Realize you will probably never see a dime of your money ever again.

Cry, scream, throw some more things. Once again, no harming of children or animals (this does not include the toads).

Then have some fun. Huh? You say. I’m serious, make this a game. You can’t live in a state of anger or you’ll ruin your life. Look at it this way: you are the cat, they are the mouse (sorry, toad doesn’t really work with that metaphor). Keep a sense of humor while chasing them out of business.

Here’s some steps you can take:

Write a negative review on every website that accepts them. If possible, use the owner’s name (and any partner), since many shysters simply change the name of their business or transfer the business to a partner’s name. Rip-off Report, Yellowbot, Yellow Pages, Dex, Superpages.com, Yahoo Local, Kudzu, Yelp, Insider Pages, Zip Hip, City Search.

Place a free ad on Craigslist asking if there are other victims. You will have to select a section to put your ad in such as community or services offered.

If the individual or business has a physical address, picket their business or hand out flyers. Brian McFate of Rocky Mountain Custom Decks and I/E Services has a series of bogus addresses, and lost his booth at the local home show–where we orginally met him–because (surprise!) he owed them money. But if he still did the home shows, we would hand out flyers with photos of his messes. Time-consuming, but hey, we like the home shows. Not quite the same if you’ve been ripped off by a pig farmer or portable toilet leaser.

Here’s where the fun really starts–Google the person’s or business’s name and see if they have a facebook page. If they do, send a message to every one of their “friends” telling them what’s happened. You can do this as many times as you like. Although some of them will eventually complain. Or they just might be thankful and become your friend.

Social networking tools are wonderful. If you have a twitter account, tweet about your experience.

If you have the cheat’s phone numbers, call them, put your phone up to a TV or radio (so the noise keeps the inbox rolling–normally about five minutes) and walk away. You’ll have to do this a few times until their message box fills up.

Leave a detailed comment on this website for all to see, using their name, the name of their business and any associates. In this cyber day and age, it’s hard for anyone to hide. Search engines can find them.

Please, no break-up sob stories or personal vendettas.

Those were all free, but if you want to spend a little money–hijack their website. Create a website that is close to the user name of the scammer–For example, if their web address is www.handyman.com, register for www.handyman.org. The point is to get Google to pull it either higher than their site, or close by on the same scroll-down page. Brian McFate hasn’t paid his web designer or webmaster in so long they’ve sent his account to collections, so we are negotiating for the current domain name.

Count your blessings. Brian McFate of Rocky Mountain Custom Decks and I/E Services had done everything wrong on the underlayment and we were spared the extra costs of materials and labor if someone else had to pull new shingles up and start all over. The roof we wound up with is much better quality than what we would have had, and it works better with the color and design of our house.

Whatever you do, never threaten physical harm or stalk the cheat. You don’t want to wind up in jail yourself. Take a deep breath, give up the anger, and remember, putting a scammer/conman/shyster/grifter out of business is a public service.

Ribbet, Ribbet, Brian McFate (and Dominic Guilmette) of Rocky Mountain Custom Decks and I/E Services.

(The previous suggestions are for entertainment value only. I cannot be held responsible for anything you choose to do, or any way you choose to do it. I could throw in a ton of legalease, but I know most of you don’t really read any of that anyway. Any more than you read the 18,000-word terms of service before you check the box and click enter. Any more than you read the preface to a literary novel. Or any more than you read the full instructions when it says clearly, “Read the full instructions before assembling.” Forgive me if I am projecting here!)