Complaint / Review
Guide To Government Grants
Ripoff randomly drawn name from taxpayers $8000 federal grant $257 processing fee banking info for direct draft of fee and deposit of grant money

This company called my daughter who is a college freshman, represented themselves as the federal government, and said that because "her parents had paid taxes for the past 5 years" her name "was randomly drawn" as a recipient of an "$8000 government grant" for her education. She was asked her for her address, phone number, bank name, and checking account information - routing number and account number - for direct deposit of the grant money. She was told there would be a $257 "processing fee" that needed to be drafted from her account first.

Part of the personal information was collected via a recording.

The person to whom my daughter spoke gave her his name "David Gomes" and id number "ID#0196". She was talked into providing the bank name and the account number, but when asked for the routing number she stated that she did not want to give it out until she spoke to her parents. "David" told her she did not have to make a decision now, and gave her a phone number and confirmation number to use to call back when she makes her decision.

When my daughter informed me of the call and the information she had already provided I was immediately worried. I called the phone number that was provided to her. It was for "Guide to Government Grants Customer Service." A recorded message said that the office was closed.

It was Saturday, and the bank was closed too, but she was able to transfer funds out of her checking account into another account via internet banking. I had my daughter transfer everything execept $1 out of the account to which she had provided the number. She will look into closing the account when the bank opens on Monday morning.

The only other worry is if my daughter opted for what the banks call "overdraft protection" on her checking account. I hope not. I do not consider this "protection". It provides a pathway to all of your funds through your checking account. If Guide to Government Grants puts through a draft to her checking account and the funds are not there, I would not want them to take it out of her savings account.