EL RENO, OKLA. – There are new details tonight involving an Oklahoma salesman we’ve told you about before.
Russ Johnson was previously accused of defrauding small business owners.
His customers say he sold them fake advertising.
“The number he left me was disconnected,” business owner, Crystal Starbuck said. “There’s no physical address. It’s a PO Box.”
Johnson used to work for a company called Zoom Media.
Zoom Media fired the salesman.
That’s when Johnson started up his own company with almost the exact same name, Zoom Advertising.
We asked him why he chose such a similar name.
“I thought it was a good name,” Johnson said.
Now there are new complaints.
Jimmy Hendershot runs 23rd Street Vapes and says Johnson promised him ad space on the back of grocery store receipts for local chains like Homeland, Crest and Buy 4 Less.
“His deal is not too good to be true,” Hendershot said. “It’s fair. It’s as if he was working a legitimate advertising company.”
We checked with reps at all three grocery chains.
They say not only have they never done business with Johnson, but they’ve never even heard of the salesman or his company.
Right now Johnson is charged with writing bogus checks in Tulsa and Canadian counties.
Friday, we tracked him down in court, again.
He told us he’d never heard of customer, Jimmy Hendershot.
You’ll remember, Johnson pretended not to know another dissatisfied customer, Crystal Starbuck.
So far Russ Johnson hasn’t refunded anyone’s money.
Friday, we pressed him for more answers as he left the courthouse.
He refused to answer any of our questions.
Hendershot and other small business owners filed police reports, but so far criminal charges haven’t been filed in connection with their complaints.
If you have a complaint against Russ Johnson we urge you to call police.
We’ll keep you posted on things.
