My husbands at work, I'm crying in my living room and I think my son can hear me. I wish those people could see what a wreck I am now. My husband and I are trying to get funding for a community arts studio in WI where we live. We want to help low income children, Senior Citizens and the Mentally Ill find wellness through art. I really thought there were people out there who wanted to help as much as we do. Last week I gave $250.00 to a company called Unsecured Business Funding they were supposed to help us find lendors and then I found out it was just a scam to get more money. So when I found the opportunity to get funding for free and possibly find an angel investor at the same time I was relieved. I spent hours re - writing and preparing everything I needed to propose the idea. At first they had me write a small profile about the business and then I waited.
I knew there was an option to upgrade to expidite the process but I really believed our idea would eventually get to the right person at the right time. At first my profile said it was under review I thought that was a good sign it made me feel that the company only wanted to publish legitimate information to investors. And I thought the company would do the same for me. As soon as my profile was "accepted" I was immediatly contacted by 2 men. The first said he was trying to get my information because he wanted to get my business plan but it was blocked and asked if he was doing something wrong (to unblock it you need to upgrade). The second e-mail said that this man wanted to invest and wanted to know how much I was willing to put in out of my own pocket.
I wrote back that I had started a website for friends and family to donate towards a down payment on a loan and gave him the web addrress. He also wanted my business plan. I was so excited I told my husband there were two people interested and we needed to pay $145.00 soon because the faster we responded and gave them the business plan the more serios they would think we were and not disregaurd us after a couple of days when we really did have the x-tra money to upgrade. I convinced him. I upgraded and tried to contact them and was notified I needed to upgrade again. I was trying to call the to say I shouldn't have to pay the full $195.00 to upgrade when I just paid $145.00 last night.
No response, I went on the internet to look for another # and saw this. I had the credit card in my hand. I geuss I should feel lucky that I saw this before giving away more of the very little savings we have. But I just feel ashamed and stupid, they have my art studio web address and my home address and my telephone # access to a lot of information that makes me uncomfotable because I don't know what kinds of people that would do this are. I honestly have a really bad feeling. They also have access to our checking account. I don't know what to say to my husband, I convinced him when he said we should wait. I can't beleive this is happening, I'm crushed I know now that if I cant get funded through my bank I most likely wont get funded at all. I'm ready to give up!
0 comments