On Tuesday (11/27/07) I went online trying to find information about grant money. I know that it is possible to get money from the government and foundations but was unsure where to look for it. I found the website"www.uswebgrants.com" and out of curiosity filled out their questionnaire.
The next day (11/28/07) I got a call from one of their representatives, named Tony Krystal. He said that my file was in the hands of one of their attorneys who had assured him that I qualified for and would receive at least $5,000 in health grant money (red flag).in order to proceed further with my application I needed to pay a one time fee of $343.50 and that this was a discounted rate. Their normal fee is $494.00. He assured me that I could do this with either a credit card or post dated check. And that I could then apply for grants as often as I wanted to for years to come without ever having to pay any other fees.
I asked for some time to do some research and talk to my husband about it. I called back on Thursday (11/29/07) and asked him if they were a member of the Better Business Bureau and he assured me that they were members of the BBB in Delaware. That struck me as odd since the phone number he had called me from was an unlisted number based in New York (red flag).
I went online to the BBB website and looked the company up. They had a undesirable/unreliable or something like that rating with the BBB. According to the report they have had (at that time) 20 complaints filed in the last 12 months and 65 complaints filed against them in the last 3 years. There were 4 addresses listed but all were PO Boxes in NY (red flag). And according to the report the company is actually located in Canada.
I thought about dropping it at that point but was curious about what they would say if I confronted them with the report. So I called back this morning (11/30/07). Of course when I told Mr. Krystal about the report he asked me if they had lsited how many satisfied customers/clients they had and that they had a better than 94% success rate. Then he transferred me to another gentleman who tried to reassure me with statements to the effect that if the company was willing to be deceptive they could pay $500 a month to the BBB and have a spotless record and a sterling rating but they didn't want to deceive anyone and that the reason people complained about them was because the clients lied in their applications and that when that was found out they no longer qualified for the grants but because the work had in fact been done, they no longer qualified for a refund. Now technically that makes sense so I dropped that issue. Then he went on to state that they had offices in Delaware and Washington state but I can find no addresses for those offices. He did give me addresses for Champlain NY and Dear DE but neither of these addresses are listed with the BBB or on their website.
The gentleman then offered to e-mail a copy of the contract to me. I agreed. The contract states that the fees must be paid with a cashiers check or credit card only, no money orders or post dated checks. The contract states that the client is not guaranteed any amount of funds at all. And you are limited to applying once per year for grant assistance although you can apply for multiple grants at one time.
Needless to say this company will not be getting any money from me at all. I thought I would pass this along in case anyone else was curious like I was and comes across this group. I may be in dire financial straits and need money right now but I am not so desperate as to get stupid about it.
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