Lisa Ramirez was looking for someone to fix her electrical panel, so she googled "Bradenton electricians" and quickly found a listing for Bradenton Electrical Repair. “I did everything over email originally,” Ramirez said. Emails show that the company offered a membership agreement for $149. “Once you paid membership, they’d do a lot of servicing for free,” she explained. A good deal… or so she thought. “We scheduled a time for a person to come out, and they never showed up. They rescheduled it and didn’t show up a second time,” Ramirez said. “And that’s when I knew they weren’t who they said they were.” So who were they? We Google-searched the company too, finding a phone number and address just minutes away from Lisa’s home. But there was no business at the address — just a construction site. We also called the phone number listed, and we asked the person on the other end of the call where the business is located. “But it’s a construction site? You’re saying you’re in an office building. If you tell me where you are, I’d like to interview you,” 10 Investigates reporter Jennifer Titus told an operator on the line. That’s when they hung up, leaving more questions than answers. We went back to the Google search where this all started and quickly noticed red flags. One reviewer wrote, “They did an excellent job wiring our basement.” We are pretty sure there are no basements in Bradenton. Then, we looked closer at the emails Lisa received. Discovering 'Premium Home Service' She was not charged by Bradenton Electrical Repair. Instead, the charges came from a company called Premium Home Service. In online videos and job postings, the company bills itself as the “fastest growing company here in the United States” with over a million clients. The listed CEO and owner is Yosef Bernath, who advertises his business across social media platforms, promising a nationwide job network for independent contractors. A YouTube video we found online says, “Thousands of Premium Home Service members nationwide ensure a steady flow of jobs.” We uncovered that the company has piled up complaints nationwide. The Better Business Bureau gives the company an F rating and flags a pattern of complaints. It's the same at the office of Florida’s Attorney General. Consumers wrote about upfront fees, no-show appointments, fake addresses like a junk removal business that claimed online to be located at a pizza joint and an electrician with an address that’s a law office. So just how widespread is Premium Home Service’s network? As part of our team’s investigation, a whistleblower provided company data that revealed thousands of fake businesses at fake addresses across the U.S. and Canada, bringing in tens of millions of dollars from often unsuspecting customers. In Florida, we identified more than 15,000 customers and more than 600 listed companies. That’s how we found Lisa, who says the service she got was far from premium. “I can’t believe they are still functioning,” Ramirez said. Lisa was able to fight the charge with her credit card company and did get her money back. But we were determined to figure out who was behind the fake business and hijacked Google listings, which deceived customers and generated devastating impacts on local businesses. We teamed up with our reporting partners in Minneapolis at KARE 11. Investigative reporter A.J. Lagoe set out to track the owner down. To start, he followed the money. Credit card charges for customers who thought they were hiring Arney Plumbing were traced back to a company called Premium Home Service (PHS). MORE: https://www.wtsp.com/article/news/investigations/10-investigates/fake-home-repair-companies-florida/67-559763cd-9546-4907-a383-268f040264e0