MALLET TOWN, Ark. (KTHV) -- The small Conway County community of Mallet Town is one of 24 certified ghost towns in Arkansas. It's located about 20 miles north of Conway and has fewer than 80 people, but the community believes someone is trying to scam every single one of them.
It all started when one resident typed Mallet Town, Arkansas into the search engine, Bing.
What she found wasn't the town history she was looking for, it was thousands of results for businesses and attractions that reportedly drew people to the town, but the ads didn't follow through on what they offered.
"We've got a church. That's it, we've got a church," said one resident who wanted to stay anonymous.
The webpages have advertised softball leagues, pet parlors, boat rentals and even beach campgrounds, and have all been listed with the same phone number.
"Yesterday there were 293,000 [page results on Bing]. Now today there's over a million. It's growing every day," continued the man.
But the catch is this small town doesn't have any of what the ads offer, all it has are a few farms, a church, and a cemetery.
People in the town have contacted the attorney general's office about the sites, but they say they haven't gotten a response, even though they say out-of-towners have actually come to town looking for the businesses.
"You get people showing up asking you all these questions like where's this and you're sitting there like I don't even know what you're talking about," the man explained. "We got one guy that's a welder, you know, if you want to count that as a business."
The County Judge suspects former Razorback Ryan Mallett's notoriety is behind the pages. His grandparents were original settlers in the town and has a hunch the scammer is trying to capitalize off his fame.
