Fraud

ComplaintsFinancesU.S Federal Government Grant Department

Complaint

0
Xavier Acuna
Country: United States
I got the same call from a man with a very thick Pakistani/Indian accent. They told me I had gotten approved for a grant of $8,500 and the reason for this is that each year the U.S Gov. Grant Dept. supposably selects 15,000 Americans who have not filed for bankruptcy in the last couple months and pay they're bills on time, which raised a red flag because I'm late on some bills. They asked wether I wanted it on a gift card or bank account, they gave me a grant approval # and call back # and told me to ask for Harry Ford, who then told me about a $180 donation through western union, and that he'd walk me through the process. After reading all these complaints it assured me that it was fraud, very similar stories.

Comments

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  • 0
    Karen Crow
    | 6 replies
    I recieved a anonamous call from a man with a foriegn accent, who was talking very fast. when I ask him to slow down so I could understand him, he raced through his dialog trying to convince me to give him my bank account# , credit card#, or walmart card# to deposit $8400 within the next 45 minutes. My first thought was who deposits Gov. $ into a Walmart card? When I told him to send me a letter explaining how a qualified for this grant, he told me to go to this website. Again I ask him how I was selected for this "grant". He hung up. I thought we got disconnected, so I looked on my caller ID to get the #, and low and behold it didn't come up!!! This is a fraud that some people will fall for if they don't listen to the dialog carefully and know that the Gov. don't send money to your account of any kind without official notification and application approval. I didn't apply for no grant and I owe the Gov. $7000!!!!! Don't get scammed into this!!!
    • 0
      west replies to Karen Crow
      | 5 replies
      Same thing happened 15 minutes ago man name frank brown says 8500 coming my way only thung is its a 250 deposit says he would walk me through it but am i near a walmart lol even given me the number to the account i think it thats what its called
      • 0
        Tyler replies to west
        I just got that same phone call. When I told the thick accented lady that I didn't believe her, she said that it was my right and that I could go to hell
      • 0
        Robert Zindle replies to west
        | 1 reply
        I'm commenting on this post because the almost word for word happened today to me however I asked questions myself like employee #s and I have phone numbers as well as probably fictitious names and it wasn't until I called the final number when they insisted I send them $250.00 dollars to cover taxes to go back to them, so not to be bothered at a later date to pay the taxes, when I informed the person I don't even have that amount in my account to pay it a I could release$150.00 dollars and made me promise to pay the rest of the money in the 15 minutes or so when I receive the $8.500.00 dollars they wouldn't have that so it was then I informed them that I wasn't authorizing that they take any money from my account and he got furious and said if I wasn't releasing those monies there wouldn't be any money transferred to my account, so I said I guess there isn't going to be any transaction then he really got even more furious and hung up, so I called back and informed him that I was going to get in touch with the proper authorities and see if there is in fact money due to me and again he hung up then the first person or at least the person with the first phone#called me back but I missed that call unfortunately I tried to call that # and it wasn't a proper#. IDK if it could be traced or anything of the sort, I have all the numbers and I notified my financial institution, they told me they most likely I should come in and close that account, if someone could help or if I could help in any way I would gladly cooperate, Sincerely, Robert Zindle
        • 0
          Alana Adkins replies to Robert Zindle
          Juat got that sIame call
      • 0
        ANGELL replies to west
        | 1 reply
        Same thing happened to me just now. got the grant info so i called them back it was a margaret hamliton. she told me that i had to send in 250.00 for tax purposes for the irs ive been to college and ive gotten grants from the govt never had to pay a tax on that money...
        • 0
          D replies to ANGELL
          I received the same call about contacting Margaret Hamilton. I didn't respond. Same info.
  • 0
    Meggie
    Folks, be extremely careful.  This is accelerating, and there are reports of access to bank accounts even without people having given information to them.  There are also reports that the operators of the scam have begun making threats to people who don't buy into it.  After a call I got a few days ago, I've been researching this and I'm going to call back a government agency to ensure they know some of the more recent accelerations of this.  The calls are spoofed, and are actually originating out of the country.  So far, I've been able to find people reporting on tracking the calls to India, Nigeria, Pakistan, Peru, and Viet Nam.
  • 0
    Meggie
    Oh, forgot.  There are more than 20 pages of sites like this with people sharing into on this under a Google search.
  • 0
    Jenna
    | 3 replies
    I got the call twice about the $8500 grant given to 1500 people for paying their bills on time and not declaring bankruptcy.  The first time, the person asked to verify my name, and he had the wrong name.  I said it wasn't my name and he hung up on me, which I thought was pretty rude.  In addition it seemed weird to me that the U.S. government would outsource these phone calls when they are trying to hire people within the U.S. to decrease the unemployment numbers.  

    The second time they called, the script had changed.  The first question was not to verify my name, it was whether I wanted the government grant to my bank or on credit card (Yeah, scam alarm bells going off like crazy there.  The government has been perfectly fine with sending out checks in the past...)  So instead of answering her question, I asked for the name of the government grant.  They had a hard time understanding my request, and she asked me to repeat it. After repeating it three times, she said she would transfer me to someone who knew (As if the government would have this program without having some kind of name for it that I could search for on the internet).  And of course instead of transferring me, she hung up on me.  

    So, definite scam.  I am concerned about how they got my name and number.
    • 0
      Anonymous replies to Jenna
      | 2 replies
      I received the same call which was very strange. If the govt issues grant money they would be glad to send the checks via mail. The fact that the lady I called started yelling at me because I wouldn't pay $208 by phone using my bank card in order to western union the $8500 grant money was crazy. There's a website that you can go to register your phone number as a do not call number to prevent these bogus phone calls. I registered me and my hubby's number and haven't received any more calls. I believe you have to keep doing it every 5-6 months though. I rather do that than to keep receiving fraudulent phone at 6:30p, 11:30p, even 1am....smh
      • 0
        r replies to Anonymous
        What is this number you used to keep scammers from calling?
      • 0
        gary replies to Anonymous
        what is the web site for the do not call list
  • 0
    Mike
    I received a call saying i was chosen for a government grant for $8500 because i hadn't filed for bankrupcy recently. After listening to them for half an hour explaining how it worked and that i would need to send $290 through money gram, I quickly got off the phone with them and canceled my debit cards right away. They called from 206-569-5696.
  • 0
    Eddie
    Well I recived about 10 calls in the last 3 days from these clowns. I don't know why they keep calling. As soon as I see that 206 area code ( I simply get ready for my speech to them. I tell them that they have just won either a toaster a trip or 5 million dollars and than I proceed to ask for they're bank acct number and I ask them to send me 50 dollars. It's so funny to hear them so confused!?!, lmao! Usually they hang up on me after about 5 min of my congratulatory spiel...
  • 0
    Sean
    | 1 reply
    If anybody is reading this after they refresh today i just got the same kind of call about forty minutes ago from a woman at this number 202-666-1040.  All of you are telling there is no legitimate federal grant worth $8,500?
    • 0
      rosie replies to Sean
      i got a call from a 202- 666 - 1040 stating it was a goverment call for grant man had heavy accent beware he called 2 weeks ago and i told him i was going to report him. so now he waited 2 weeks and tried again
  • 0
    Deena
    | 1 reply
    I got the same call about 30 minutes ago from a woman at (202) 621-0743.  When she asked me how I wanted the money deposited I told her that I wanted more information first because I wanted to make sure it wasn't a scam.  She hung up.  Pretty much answered my question.
    • 0
      jmonty replies to Deena
      same number from nate jones....
  • 0
    Tiffany
    I just got the call this morning. I thought it sounded fishy since she didn't say what the program was called or what department of the government she was just, just "U.S. Government." I also got married about 2 years ago, and they still had my name as my maiden name. I know the government knows my name has changed. I've filed taxes twice now with the new name.  I asked to be mailed a check instead of direct deposit, and she said that she couldn't do that. Sadly, as much as I'd like $8500, I knew better than to give her my bank number.
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