I got a call tonight around 7:30 pm and after a hard day it was kind of hard to think clearly. This lady with a heavy Indian accent (not american indian) said that I was guaranteed $8000.00 in grant money (she called it a "Social Grant") b/c of a variety of reasons. I paid my taxes on time, I never filed for bankruptcy, my credit report was good, etc...
Immediately I was leery of giving them any information about myself and I should have hung up. But I was curious so I may have gotten burned. The lady said that I needed to give them my bank account # (clue 1) to verify I was who I said I was and to be transferred to the verification department. I spoke with her for a while without giving the account # and then decided that they can't take any $ out without a routing number. So I gave her my account number and then was transferred to the "verification department." At this point, I finally found this website on the 'net and saw a complainant say that these people may have the routing numbers of major banks in the area. That made me even more uncomfortable.
I spoke with a man this time (another Indian type accent) and at this point I decided that I felt too uneasy about all this and decided that I did not want to go on with this. His supervisor came on and tried to convince me that this was all on the up and up (just like the lady and the man before him). I told him that I did not want to participate in this program and that I did not authorize him to withdraw any money from my account. (good luck with that)
I just checked my bank by phone (2 hours later) and they have not taken any money yet but they have all of Sunday. I think that they call on Saturday b/c all banks are closed on Sunday and you cannot really get in touch with anyone from the bank until Monday. I just hope that they can't do an electronic withdrawal until monday b/c I am going to close my account and start a new one.
Beware of this scam. They try to sound professional and say that they understand that people are afraid of being scammed, that is why they say to postdate the check for 2 weeks, but that doesn't prevent them from taking the money as soon as they can. Email this site (usacomplaints.com) to all your friends to let them know about this.
0 comments