Where to file, and why volume is what matters.
A single consumer complaint is almost always closed as a private contract dispute. Multiple independent complaints from unrelated people, describing the same conduct, is what moves a regulator from a form letter to an investigation. That is the entire mechanism. If this happened to you, filing takes about fifteen minutes and it counts.
The honest answer on “is this fraud?”
This is the question everyone in this situation asks, so here is the straight version. In Missouri, breaking a contract is normally a civil matter, not a crime. A contractor who takes a deposit and then genuinely runs out of time, money or capacity has breached a contract. That is a lawsuit, not a prosecution.
It crosses into fraud when the promise was made with a present intent not to performat the time it was made. Almost nobody admits that. So it is proven circumstantially — and the strongest circumstantial evidence is a pattern: the same representations, made to multiple unrelated people, followed by the same non-performance, repeatedly, over time.
That is why an individual complaint about a few thousand dollars still matters. On its own it looks like a dispute. Filed alongside others, it becomes the pattern. Missouri’s Merchandising Practices Act (Chapter 407, RSMo) is the statute that captures this conduct, and it is the statute the Attorney General enforces.
For what it is worth: a Missouri court has already found, in the Comer matter, that representations made by these defendants were “false, made knowingly” and violated § 407.020. That judgment is here.
Start here, in this order
Do them in this sequence. The first two are the ones that carry real weight in Missouri.
1 · Missouri Attorney General — Consumer Protection Division
This is the single highest-value filing. The Attorney General enforces the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act and can seek injunctions, restitution and civil penalties. Their office tracks complaints by respondent, so complaints against the same business accumulate into one file.
File online: ago.mo.gov/file-a-complaint
Consumer Protection Hotline: 1-800-392-8222
Mail:Missouri Attorney General’s Office, Consumer Protection Division, P.O. Box 899, Jefferson City, MO 65102
Attach:the contract or invoice, every payment receipt, the full text or email thread, photographs, and a one-page dated timeline. In the narrative, say plainly that you are aware of other complaints against the same business and reference the case numbers on this site — 25CY-CV04306 (Clay County, judgment entered) and 25CA-CC00095 (Cass County). Naming the pattern is what elevates a complaint out of the routine pile.
2 · Missouri Department of Natural Resources — well drilling
Missouri regulates water well drillers and pump installers under Chapter 256, RSMo, through the DNR’s Missouri Geological Survey. DNR is the body that can actually act against a driller’s permit, and it handles complaints about improper construction, improper plugging, and work performed without the required permit or without filing the required well records.
Wellhead Protection Section: dnr.mo.gov → well drilling permits & certification
Missouri Geological Survey, Rolla:573-368-2100 · toll free 800-361-4827
Mail: Missouri Geological Survey, P.O. Box 250, Rolla, MO 65402
Ask them two specific things:(a) whether the permit number displayed on the company’s vehicle — MO PERMIT 002231— is current and in good standing, and (b) whether the required well plugging and abandonment records were ever filed for your property. A contractor who promised to file DNR paperwork and did not is squarely within DNR’s jurisdiction.
3 · Kansas Department of Health and Environment — if the work was in Kansas
KDHE licenses water well contractors in Kansas. The company advertises Kansas work and a Louisburg, Kansas phone number, and the McCorkell petition states the defendants drilled wells in both Missouri and Kansas. The permit displayed on the vehicle is KS PERMIT 595.
KDHE: kdhe.ks.gov · Kansas Attorney General Consumer Protection: 1-800-432-2310, ag.ks.gov/complaint-center
4 · Cass County Prosecuting Attorney
In Missouri, criminal charges are brought by the county prosecutor, not by the Attorney General. If you believe the conduct was criminal — in Missouri, taking money by deceit can fall under the stealing statute, § 570.030, RSMo — the prosecutor for the county where the conduct occurred is who decides. Cleveland, Missouri is in Cass County.
Cass County Prosecuting Attorney:102 E. Wall Street, Harrisonville, MO 64701 · 816-380-8200
Be realistic: prosecutors decline most contractor cases as civil disputes. What changes that calculus is a documented pattern across multiple victims and an existing court finding of knowing falsity. Both exist here. Bring a written packet, not a phone call.
5 · Federal Trade Commission
The FTC will not act on an individual case, and it is worth ten minutes anyway: FTC complaints feed the Consumer Sentinel Network, a database that state attorneys general and law enforcement query directly when deciding whether a target is worth pursuing. A complaint there makes your case visible to investigators you will never speak to.
6 · FBI — and a candid word about it
Payments made by Venmo, PayPal, or card across state lines, in reliance on representations made by phone, text, email or a website, implicate the federal wire fraud statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1343, in principle. In practice, federal investigators triage by total loss, victim count and interstate scope, and a matter of this size is very unlikely to draw an FBI investigation on its own.
File anyway if the facts fit, because tips aggregate: tips.fbi.gov and, for anything with an online or electronic-payment element, ic3.gov. The FBI field office covering Cass County is Kansas City, 1300 Summit Street, Kansas City, MO 64105, 816-512-8200.
What would actually change the federal calculus: a much larger aggregate loss across many victims, or evidence that money collected for a specific purpose was diverted. If you have documentation of either, say so explicitly in the tip.
7 · Better Business Bureau and public reviews
These carry no legal weight, and they are the first thing the next customer sees. A factual, dated, unemotional review that states what you paid and what was delivered is more useful than an angry one.
If you want your money back
Regulatory complaints build the record. They do not generally get your money back. For that, the mechanism is a civil suit.
In Missouri, small claims court handles claims up to $5,000 and is designed to be used without a lawyer. Above that, the associate circuit divisionhandles most claims up to $25,000 — that is the division where the McClung case was filed, pro se. Filing fees are modest. You file in the county where the defendant lives or where the transaction occurred.
If you win and the defendant does not pay, a Missouri judgment can be enforced: you can file a transcript of the judgment with the circuit clerk to create a lien on real estate in that county, request a debtor examination to find assets, and pursue garnishment of wages or bank accounts. A Missouri judgment is generally good for ten years and can be revived.
Several plaintiffs in these matters were represented by counsel, and those attorneys are named in the public filings on the case pages. An attorney who has already litigated against the same defendant knows the terrain. Note also that the Missouri Merchandising Practices Act allows a court to award attorney’s fees to a prevailing consumer, which is why some lawyers will take these cases that would otherwise be uneconomic.
This page is information, not legal advice
I am not a lawyer. Statutes of limitation apply to contract and fraud claims and they do run out. If your loss is significant or recent, talk to a Missouri attorney rather than relying on a website.