On 11/10/05 @ 1130am I received a call from a company called Advantage America stating I was eligible to receive grant money ($12,500) after filling out paperwork etc. With the government which I would receive within the next 3 days.
I received an ID # for the grant etc. Etc, just like the stories from the persons in Maryland and Florida. However, I would have to pay $49.95 for processing and legal documentation, coming out of my bank acct. I incidentally also had to give them my bank routing# and bank account #, so the grant could be deposited there.
I know, I know! How naive and stupid could I have been in retrospect...
Well, I did have a bad feeling and went online immediately and sure enough found the "consumer complaints" about this company. I tried to contact the co. Directly and cancel the whole transaction right then and there. I was told it would be too difficult to find the particular representative I spoke to (a Mr. Mike Travis) because there are over 2000 employees etc., besides I wasn't in their system yet and would have to call back in 24-48 hours.
I'm sure by that time the money will have been deducted and I'll never see a dime of it again. I did contact my bank, but short of closing the account (another beaurocratic nightmare) there's not much that can be done since it takes about 3 days to put a HOLD on a transaction.
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