A man called today giving me the name "Robin Taylor". (Isn't it interesting that these people with such thick accents all have such American sounding names"). When he kept mispronouncing my name (a sure sign of a telemarketer) I hung up on him.
He immediately called back (which telemarketers don't usually do) saying we had gotten "cut off". He said I was eligible for a $5000 government grant because I was a regular tax payer and then he asked if I had paid taxes at least once in the last 3 years. He then went on to explain that he would send the proper documents within 7-10 days and I would just need to pay fee within the next 7 days of $199.95.
I said no, I wanted to verify the legitimacy of what the company was doing first. Each time I expressed my doubts and skepticism he tried to assure me this was not a scam, he could not use the information without my permission. Eventually I succumbed to giving him the information he requested. Then he said someone would call me back for the verification process.
While I was waiting for the call, I found this website and all my fears were confirmed. Someone did call me back and I told them to cancel everything, and that they were not to take any money out of my account. The person protested with the same words used earlier to reassure me. I told him I had found 100's of reports on their company saying it was a scam and that I didn't want any further business with them.
As soon as I hung up, I went to the bank, told them what had happened and closed the account I had given information about. I never thought I would be so naive as to fall for this sort of thing. Luckily, I did not lose any money.
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