Janis Riddle / Interior Design & Decor Janis Roux, Janis Dean INTERIOR DESIGN SCAM / THEFT Minneapolis Minnesota

Janis operates a fraudulent interior design firm, going by fake names such as Janis Riddle, and changing the name of her firm regularly.  By using a false identity and changing her business names, making it difficult for unsuspecting people to research her, she has stolen thousands of dollars from consumers who believe she is going to use their deposits to order furniture, contract with service providers, etc.  After rounds of excuses and delays, Janis then disappears completely.  If you want to further understand the true character of Janis, you should check websites such as http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/j-roux-interior-design-minneapolis-minnesota-c202884.html, http://www.ripoffreport.com/r/designer-secrets/rogers-minnesota-55304/designer-secrets-currently-dba-designer-secrets-bad-business-practices-fraud-rogers-min-706562; http://designer-secrets.pissedconsumer.com/bad-business-practices-fraud-20110318227490.html.  If you don't believe these, you can search the Hennepin County Court records and see all the outstanding judgments against her, as well as her extensive criminal background.  She currently has a 'theft by swindle' warrant outstanding and is facing other potential criminal charges as well.  Appears to be a nice woman, but actually a con artist...  

I unfortunately ran across Janis earlier this year and was unable to find this information about her as she constantly changes her name and uses aliases to avoid detection. We had a few meetings and Janis provided several proposals for work to be done on my home, providing bids that are compelling by offering lower pricing and discounts.  Unaware of her real identity and corresponding fraudulent history, I contracted with her to provide several interior design services (painting, etc.) as well as furniture orders.  I paid the 50% deposit she requested to begin the scheduling and ordering process, for six different proposals.  

For services she spoke highly of her dedicated crew and how much experience they had... actually I do not believe they exist.  She found someone on Craigslist to do some of the work for me, despite his lack of experience in this particular area, and ask him not to mention they had just met.  Some minimal work was actually completed, but she later wrote a fraudulent check to the contractor for that work.  The remaining services and furniture were never provided … I spent months getting various excuses from Janis about why she didn’t attend appointments, why appointments needed to be rescheduled, why the crew didn’t show up, etc.  Most of these were health-related, to undoubtedly garner sympathy. After I realized she had passed a bad check to the subcontractor for the work that had been done on my home, Janis ceased all communications with me and disappeared - she would not and has not returned any emails, texts, or phone calls to try to resolve this matter. 

After I realized her true identity, I found a long history of consumer fraud, court judgments ($600K+) against her for similar instances, and in fact criminal charges for theft, which I am also pursuing against her.

I would STRONGLY advise against working with Janis... appears to be a nice person, but is actually a seasoned con artist with a fraudulent history dating back decades .  Search the name "Janis Roux" (her legal identity) to find more complaints...  

Because she uses a fake name so often, here is a link to a photo of her, obviously taken many years ago as she looks closer to 60 now.  http://jroux.tripod.com/main.html - click on Meet the Designers, then Janis.  I believe this is an old website from when she actually ran a real firm.