Like many others reporting here, we too were in search of funding from legitimate sources and stumbled upon this website. Within 24 hours of my wife completing the online form, we received the call from Michael Turner aka Michael Bollen aka many other alias names to fit the call. He indicated that Cindy had been pre-approved by their matching funds criteria authorization system for $25,000 and up to $100,000 of free, government grant money in order to start a business. All we had to do was send them a check (business, certified or cashiers) for $449.00, overnight delivery. Upon receipt, he would call us with our funding contract number and we would receive the check within 6 weeks.
During our phone conversation with Michael Turner (we conferenced my wife in as well), it was very obvious to me, due to the loud background noise, that this guy was in a boiler room situation as you could clearly hear several other individual reciting chapter and verse the same spew. As Turner spoke, being in front of my computer, I went to the website and then entered the name of the company into the Google search, which yielded the similarly negative postings from this site as well as others. I did not let on to Turner as to my discoveries and continued the conversation with elation and enthusiasm, indicating that we would send the check immediately.
After completing the cal and concluding that this was a rip-off, I began the in-depth research that many years in broadcast news had taught me. As the MGR Solutions site indicates several Testimonial Facts regarding their services, I began to track down and verify the people and companies listed.
The first box refers to a company called Beneficial Design (reality it is Designs) receiving almost $50,000 for developing a website. FACT: This is a real company that has in fact received many educational grants over the years for developing this site and other educational resources. FACT: Beneficial Designs has never heard of nor have they ever done business with MGR Solutions. They have been writing their own grants for years, a process that in reality takes many months to as long as a year to complete. WRITING A GRANT AND RECIVING GRANT FUNDS DOES NOT TAKE 6 WEEKS AS MGR SOLUTIONS WILL HAVE YOU BELIEVE.
Midway in the Testimonial Facts is Brett Stern, receiving $175,000 for an invention he was developing. Fact: mr. Stern did receive several grants for this invention and other projects he has been working on for over 20 years. Fact: mr. Stern has never heard of MGR Solutions and in fact has written every single grant he has ever received. Mr Stern, as was the gentleman from Beneficial Designs, was very specific in how the Grant funding process works, both indicating it is a very time consuming, explicitly specific process that takes a very long time to complete without any guarantee of receiving funds.
Grants are read by individuals tasked with determining the validity of each and every proposal and are graded on a 1-10 scale. Those proposals receiving a 10 get funded, anything left over then goes to the 9's, anything leftover after that goes to the 8's and so on. Again, this process typically willl take close to a year to complete by the time any funds are dispersed.
Other realities and facts that I discovered in my 2 hours of checking. Google the physical address in Houston and you will find the satellite imagery that clearly shows an industrial strip office park, no bulding higher than 2 stories and certainly nothing that looks like the office building depicted on the website. Turner also referred to the 19th and 21st floors, clearly they do not exist.
FACT: There is no physical presence of MGR Solutions whatsoever at this address, but there is a company called US Global Mail, 866.596.8965. The very nice lady answering that phone number indicated that in fact they were nothing more than a mail drop box/PO Box facility and that MGR Solutions did have a reciving box there where the "Suite 1999" mail went to and that an individual picked up the mail there every day. Due to privacy R&R's, she did not reveal that individual, but anyone in the Houston area could certainly sit and wait for someone to come by and receive the contents of the MGR Solutions box.
The website and domain information is registered with and managed by GoDaddy.com and a WhoIs result indicates the following:
Registered through: GoDaddy.com, Inc. (http://www.godaddy.com)
Domain Name: MGR-SOLUTIONS.com
Created on: 08-Feb-06
Expires on: 08-Feb-07
Last Updated on: 08-Feb-06
Administrative Contact:
Solutions, MGR [email protected]
14781 Memorial Dr
Suite 1999
Houston, Texas 77079
United States
8779312249
Also, [email protected] is listed as the technical contact.interestingly, that email address is Canadian and BellNet is a Canadian company.
When Michael Turner called me the next day, he was pissed that he did not receive the check I promised to send and I indicated (still playing stupid) that I would like him to email me MGR Solutions "Money Back Guarantee" which is indicated on the website by a seal of approval type icon but there is no specific wording describing what that money back guarantee involves nor is there anywhere on the site any type of terms and conditions regarding services provided by MGR Solutions. When asked, Turner refused to provide them to me saying that if I did not want to do business their way that I could re-apply next year. I asked him who [email protected] was, he stated that he knew that tsako was some higher up executive and then abruptly hing up on me.
Bottom line, this is a classic buyer beware, if it sounds to good to be true, it typically is not and you have only your own foolishnees and money to lose to these very sophisticated con artists. They have done their homework to ensure their success to defraud you, now it is up to you to hopefully have done your's! Good Luck!
By the way, there is no grant money available just because you want to start up a business. The internet is full of real info, as is the government website for grants. Just do your homework and don't be in such a hurry or you will lose money to the con artists.
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