A Sioux Falls business owner contacted us saying he has been scammed out of hundreds of dollars and he doesn't want the same thing to happen to anyone else.

This situation is apparently the result of someone using a common restaurant billing practice to get themselves hundreds, and in one case, thousands of dollars in free food.

The East 10th Pizza Ranch in Sioux Falls hasn't been open too long and business is good, except in one case where the business was bad.

"We got hit for just under $200 dollars." Justin Point is part owner of this Pizza Ranch and says the loss is the result of someone taking advantage of a common restaurant billing technique called a house account. "A house account is like a charge account where we send an invoice and you don't pay upfront."

Or in this case, pay at all.

One specific customer owes this place 200 bucks and other restaurants in town are looking to get paid as well.

The man goes by the name "Scott Smith":

In some cases he claims he owns AJS Enterprises:

In other cases, he says it's MJS Enterprises.

This man has pulled the same scheme on at least three other restaurants totaling more than 3-thousand dollars.

Justin Point doesn't want anyone else to eat a loss from this guy. "Our mail goal in contacting KSFY was to let them know of the situation so other business owners could be aware of the gentleman."

We did some checking and we can find no evidence of either an AJS Enterprises or a MJS Enterprises doing business in the Sioux Falls area.