The service they promised was valuable to small business owners. But in the end, it was an elaborate scam that cost hundreds of victims millions of dollars. Steve Winders was one of those victims.
"They are professional criminals, they know exactly what they are doing," he said.
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Winders is a small business owner who now realizes he was a pawn in an elaborate scheme orchestrated by professional con-men. Inspectors say it started with a phone call.
"The telemarketers cold-called perspective clients and promised for a fee they would collect their business debts," explained U.S. Postal Inspector Camille Hammonds.
Winders decided to hire the company to collect an outstanding $16,000 debt owed to his company.
"We submitted the debt to them and it got collected in one day. It got collected," said Winders.
The check was sent directly to Winders from the company that owed the money, but according to his contract with the debt collection company, they were supposed to handle all payments. So, he sent the check to them. They were supposed to deposit it, take their 30-percent fee and send the remaining amount to him. Winders never got a penny.
"That is literally one of the things that bothers me most," said Winders. "I literally had the check in my hands and I let it slip away. That is the thing that hurt the most."
Inspectors say the debt collection company was owned by Neil Madison, who was known for using strong-arm tactics.
"He threatened to drag them into involuntary bankruptcy, to take away their homes, to take away their vehicles and to see that they were criminally charged with fraud," said Hammonds.
Instead of returning money to business owners like Winders, inspectors say he kept it all for himself.
"The funds were used to buy a yacht, luxury vehicles, a house on Laguna Beach, California," added Hammonds.
For a while, the con was successful. Winders was one of 600 victims who together lost more than $6 million. Winders says he called and emailed for awhile non-stop. Madison responded saying his company would send Winders a check. Then Madison said he would send smaller payments."
I realized after a awhile this was all a rouse to keep his company going for as long as he can to take advantage of people for as long as he can until it exploded," Winders said.
Eventually, Madison was caught and sentenced to 8 years in prison.
Inspectors say before you do business with a company, do some research. A good place to start is to check with the State Attorney Generals office and the Better Business Bureau.