I received a call today from a lady by the name of Catherine Marrow from a company called US Government Grants Department of Washington, DC. Catherine advised that I was being awarded a federal grant in the amount of $7000.00. She proceeded to ask me for my bank account information in order to deposit the funds into. When I thoroughly questioned her regarding the grant, she advised that she was provide me with her account manager that would be able to answer all of my questions. I provided my savings account number to Catherine. She provided me a transaction identification number for my grant and a phone number of 202-621-0431 and request to speak with Alex Newman (account manager).
She also advised that many others will be calling, so if the line go busy to just continue calling until someone picks up the line. I proceeded to call the number as requested, finally a gentleman who identified himself as Alex Newman answered the line. I provided him my transaction number and he advised that he could see my information and that he would release the grant money, however the federal government required that I made a $99.00 donation towards a shelter overseas for those that are less fortunate. Once the $99.00 was wired, then the funds would be released in 20-45 minutes.
I proceeded to go to the Western Union location and then called him back to advise that I was there at the location, I then asked if there would be a fee for wiring the money, he apologized for not informing me of the wiring transfer fee prior and advised that there would be a fee of $ 10.00 to wire the $99.00. He provided the information to me, advised that he funds would need to be sent in the first name of Kumar, and the last name Vishal. Alex advised that the Kumar is the personal representative that is responsible for picking up the funds and that if we put the company of the charity on the wire, then the Western Union would charge an additional fee to wire it, in the amount of $45-50.00. The wire was also going International to India, as he said this is where the federal government required my donation to go.
After processing the wire transfer, I provided the MTCN number from the wire transfer receipt, Alex advised that he was calling the bank to get my funds released, and it would only be a few minutes, after, approximately 15-20 minutes he returned and provided me with a transition number of AN7784 and advised that I needed to call right away and ask to speak with Sandra Johnson with the federal bank and provide her the transition number and she will confirm my identity and release the funds, once I called, a lady identified herself as Sandra Johnson and requested my number, I provided the number and she she then advised that she was busy with another customer and requested me to call her back in 2 hours. I then waited a few minutes and called back to ask if there was another representative that could assist me in a shorter time frame.
SHe advised that there would not be anyone else to speak with because my account was already assigned to her and I would have to allow her time to finish with her other customer. I then called the number I had for Alex several time and sometimes the line would ring and ring then go busy then other times it would only ring 2 time and then go busy as if someone was ignoring the call, I was never get back in contact with Alex. After 2 hours passed, I called and provided my transition number once again, and she advised that she was preparing to release the funds to me, verified some information with me like my address, phone number, name, birth date, and my age. Sandra then advised that the amount that would be wired into my account would be $8080.00. She advised that I was probably wondering why the amount was different that what was originally told to me about the $7000.00, she advised that the amount was increased to reimburse me for the wire transfer fee of $ 374.00 that had to be paid before the grant money would be released into my account.
She advised that the $374.00 could not be deducted from the $8080.00 because the federal government does not allow them to withdraw any money from the amount that was awarded. She asked if I may be able to borrow the money from someone considering they would have the funds back in 20 minutes. I advised that I needed to see what I could do and that I would call back. She then called me moments later to follow up with me to see if I was going to be able to wire the funds to her today or tomorrow. I advised I was not for sure and I would call back. After hanging up the phone, I started doing some investigation, and was unsuccessful locating them on the better business bureau and then I goggled them and found that someone else was also a victim from this same company. I will try to get my money back tomorrow however I doubt it will be possible. I need some help
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