Complaint / Review
Advantage America
RIPOFF Told me I was entitled to a $12,500 grant that I would not need to repay

I was called this evening at about 6:00pm PST (11/19/05) and told that I qualified for a $12,500 grant from the federal government that I would not have to pay back. When I told her that I was not interested, she pressed me and asked me why I wouldn't be interested in receivng money that was owed to me. I told her that nothing was "free". She then asked if I knew what a grant was? I told her yes. She then told me that I wouldn't have to pay it back. I asked her (Sharon Parker) to explain what she meant.

It was very hard to understand this woman as she spoke very broken English. She explained that the government picks 200 people a year to give back money to from the earned interest. And that I had been one of few who were selected. I pressed her for more information on exactly how this works... She said becasue I filed income taxes in 2004. Then she verifyied with me that I did indeed file taxes in 2004.

She asked me to choose my bank where they could transfer the funds and gave me three choices of banks, Bank of America, Wells Fargo or Washington Mutual. I told her what banking institution that I bank with as it was one of the three. When she confirmed what bank and what town I lived in she tried to confirm that she had my bank routing number. What she didn't know is that my branch of bank is located in a different town and that she had the wrong number. When I told her that this was the wrong number, she then transferred me to someone else. Who's name I did not get.

I knew that they were trying to scam me and so I jumped on-line and Googled "American Advantage", while she was trying to convince me that she needed my account number to transfer the $12,500, and found what was written about this company. This woman was pressing me for my account number, not just the routing number now, but the entire number across my check, which includes my account number, which I had already told her that I would not give her. I then told her that I had just looked up her company on-line and that what she was doing was fruad and hung up her.