It happened to my husband too. On January 8 and 9, he received a call from a person claiming that she's with the U.S. Government and that he was going to receive a grant for the amount of $12,500. She told him that in order for them to wire the money to his account, he needed to provide them with the checking account number and a routing number and $49.95 will be drafted from his account for processing.
He provided them with the checking account number but did not know the routing number. The person on the phone told him that she could find the routing number. She then called him back and gave my husband the routing number that she had obtained and asked my husband if it was correct. My husband told her to call back later on that evening, but she didn't.
On January 9th, I attempted to call the number that she gave my husband and I kept getting a answering message. When I finally got someone one the phone, I told them that my husband did not was conned into this and that someone at your company was identifying themself as a US Government worker.
I tols this person that was against the law and that if the someone was to receive a grant from the government, they would not be charges. I requested to speak to a supervisor, but could not take to one. I told them that we were not interested and that I am not authorizing any draft from my account.
When I got off the phone with them, I called my bank and did a stop payment on any electronic draft that might go thru for $49.95. The only problem I had was I did not know the name of the company that was going to do the draft, but my bank went ahead and stopped everything going thru for $49.95.
Apparently, the company could not get an debit thru because they did not have the correct routing number. Because the company still had my checking account number, they went ahead a processed a hard copy check the a fictitous number. The bank processed the check on January 20th.
I finally got a letter with some REQUEST form coupons on January 23. The letter stated that when I get the package containing the Government Information and Health Insurance, I had 7 day to review it and to call them to cancel or I will be debited $299.95.
I called them and told them that I had requested cancellation on January 9th and that I did not authorize this. All the guy would tell me is, I can let you listen to the recording of the authorization that was given to debit my checking account. He then told me that I was way pass the 7 days and that my $299.95 was drafted from my account on January 25.
I kept asking him if he was comprehending what I was trying to say. I told him that they were fraudulently using the US Government's name to scam people. He insisted that they are a legit company and that "I can let you listen to the voice recording of the authorization that you gave to debit your account." I then told him who authorized the $299.95, because I did not and again he repeated the same phrase.
I went to the bank this morning to close my account prior to call this company. My bank was very helpful. They are going to credit my acount and process an unauthorized check. When the guy told me that they drafted $299.95 from my account on January 25, I called my bank up to let them know what was going on.
I called the Florida Attorney's General Office (phone number deleted - see below) today and filed a complaint againt Advantage America. The AG Office stated that this is also under federal investigation and gave me the number to the Federal Trade Commission (phone number deleted - see below). I email and lodged a complaint with them too.
My advice to everyone is:
1. Do not give out personal information to someone calling you and asking for the information.
2. You need to call you bank and close the account. They will do whatever it takes to debit money from your account.
3. Let people you know about what's going on. I thought that this would never happen to me, but it did.
4. The Federal Government will not ask you for money if they are going to give you money. They will not ask you for personal information over the phone, everything is usually in writing.
Anna
la place, Louisiana
U.S.A.
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