9000 grant
Complaint
Wendy
Country: United States
The woman I spoke to could barely speak English, so I asked to speak to her supervisor. He went through the same speak about how I had been chosen to receive a grant for $9000 and I didn't have to pay it back. The money was sitting in the federal reserve and it was mine free. They just needed either my bank account information or my credit card information. I asked him a lot of questions and used the time to look up the phone number they called me from. It was a cell phone in the Washington DC area - 202-210-0054. He then tried to have me give him my credit card number and when I said I was comfortable with that, he told me I was wasting his time. So I hung up on them. Why can't the government stop this!
Comments
Blocked caller ID.
can any one help me understand that????
He said that I would need to go to the store with a pen and paper and my ID then call him. He wanted me to call him when I had went to one of the Money Gram location so that he would be on the phone throughout the whole process so I wouldn't be "alone". He said once I had him on the phone then I was to buy an iTunes gift card, put $210.00 on it that would be refunded to me with the 9,000 grant. So I would receive a total of $9, 210.00 in cash. The card number from the iTunes gift card would be used to activate the money tracking number and for the application at the federal bank/reserve. I asked a bunch of questions about the need for the gift card and what would happen to the money on the card. He said that Arizona is not a tax except state and that the card # would be used to avoid having state taxes taken out of the grant/ bank charges/ Down payment/etc. I was also instructed that I was not allowed to lose/destroy the iTunes card as it would be used continuously for re-verification if the state had any questions about the money or whatever.
Furthermore, he said that since it was over the $5,000 limit, the money would be liable for taxes since it's not an application grant, which means I would have to go to two different Money Gram locations to get the money with two DIFFERENT reference numbers. I kept asking him why the gift card was needed and if I chose to change the way to get the money with direct deposit would I have to go through the same process. He said yes I would. Now THAT definitely raised a red flag. Not only are grants not eligible for taxes up to $11,999.99, but grants don't require you to put money down for any activation fee. The federal government doesn't call me on my federal loans, they send an e-mail to my federal loan e-mail. I doubt that they would even give me a grant that they wouldn't just put toward the student loan money I owe them.
I was at work at the time and was unable to go anywhere as I had called them from my work number. I consulted my supervisor about the nature of the call and we looked online for any information of this grant. All the while, I had this "Adam Foster" on hold. We eventually found this site with the SCAM information. I nonchalantly told him I could not go today and that I would call him when I was able to go. He said he would be in office from 10:30 AM to 7:30 PM Eastern Time and to call him when I was in front of the place with the money gram. I left it at that.
When I got off the phone with him, I tried to call the area code 315 number that originally called me. Turns out the number has been disconnected in the matter of 20 minutes since I had talked to the "Michele" lady. The number is from Boonville, NY.
If it sounds too good to be true, IT IS! I am glad I didn't fall for it. Ridiculous. Thank you to all the people who put their stories online. You saved me from making a dire mistake.
When they mentioned needing personal account information or the Money Gram option, my gut said 'Not interested'. So I opted out....
After reading some the stories here, I feel for some of the victims of this scam. It is a shame that people are getting preyed upon like this when they are in obvious need of assistance and they believe their prayers have been answered.
I also read how could they get our personal information? Well, the recent hacks of Target, Eddie Bauer, OPM and others may have been where it came from. Yes it may have been a while since these hacks may have occurred, but 'the dust is settling and now the vultures are coming out'.
BE VIGILANT EVERYONE!
(202) 451-5344, Washington DC
(315) 106-5211, Unavailable
011 (This is a country code), Unavailable
(312) 690-7222, Chicago, IL
and my most recent was 'Unavailabe'