Montana Ranchers Scammed over Hay during Drought
The drought of 2021 was hard on nearly all of state agriculture, which included a hay shortage. Now throw in a con man to further hurt family operations.
Jory D. Parks of Logan, Kansas pulled a fraud on Facebook, advertising hay in large quantities for sale, and offering to deliver into Montana and Wyoming. He received advances from ranches desperate for hay for their livestock. You guessed it, Parks pocketed the funds for his personal and business use, without delivering the forage.
One outfit in Ingomar paid half of a $43,300 cost for 190 tons of hay. Parks actually delivered 23 tons but no more, and he didn't reimburse any of the advance.
Jory Parks has pled guilty to wire fraud and faces 20 years and a quarter million fine.
Okay, climbing on my soap box...
I recently wrote about wildfire damage and contractor scams, and fraud had hit ranchers over hay. After stewing on this for a day, here's my take:
DO NOT PAY A DIME UP FRONT TO ANY STRANGER!
This partial payment or any payment up front is now bull! Homeowners and landowners of Montana and the U.S. should not pay any cost up front before the service or product has been delivered. Especially to someone on social media they don't know.
I suppose for someone locally you have worked with before and they have played fair, you could make a reasonable downpayment. But you should be able to find them easily if something has gone wrong. Forsyth discovered their main street insurance agent had been spending premium payments in casinos. She is now doing time.
And for all those contractors and small business owners: if you need money up front to cover costs or materials, go to a bank! If you are a reputable business, you should already have the capital in hand to cover costs. These scams have ruined any trust to pay anything up front. So now you should plan for these pre-completion expenses yourselves. I'm sure there's a bank down the street that'll serve you.
Now I get it, fraud works both ways. I have used businesses that say, "Payment in full due at time of service." Customers should know what the cost will be and have that amount ready to pay...when the material or service has been rendered. Failure to do so makes the customer the scammer.
There are courts available in the event anyone cheats on a deal.
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