Chamber of Commerce’s across the state of South Dakota are experiencing an advertising sales scam.

A group called “Premier Map” was in Mobridge, SD several weeks ago claiming to be the official sales team for the Yellowstone Trail Guide. This same company is currently calling businesses in Aberdeen trying to sell ads for the official city guide, Aberdeen and Brown County map. Since they have moved through two committees it is believed that they may continue through the state.

The Yankton Area Chamber of Commerce and Convention & Visitors Bureau works with local media to produce our official Yankton Visitors Guide and area map. Carmen Schramm, Director of Chamber Services states “we do business locally and would not use or endorse a company from outside the area to produce our official publication”. The 2010 Yankton Visitors Guide was delivered last week and no sales are currently under way.

Within the last month there have been several “scams” that have had the Chamber’s name attached to them. Several calls came into the Yankton Area Chamber of Commerce concerning a Chamber sponsored sweepstakes where the phone solicitors told residents that they had won a large sweepstake and that it would require $499 from them to release the official sweepstakes check. The callers stated that the sweepstakes was endorsed by the local chamber and were given an 800 number to call and verify.  When the chamber called this number and informed them that it was in fact the chamber calling, they promptly hung up. These scams are generally routed to overseas operations posing as legitimate businesses.

In another incident, a sales representative from Texas dropped by and picked up brochures at the Visitor Information Center and stated that he was selling refrigerator magnet advertising. He was informed that we would not purchase an ad and that we did not endorse the program. He proceeded to sell space on the magnets under the guise that the Chamber had endorsed it. We received a magnet in the mail at a later date that had chamber information on the piece.