I received a call from Ben on 1-202-907-8527 on 07/09 claiming to be with the U.S. Government grants department and that I was awarded $9000. He stated that I was chosen for this grant because I don’t have a criminal history and have been paying my bills on-time and generally a good citizen. He asked me to verify my age and home address. At this point, I asked him to provide me with his company ID and a web address for me to look into this grant in more details. He refused and said only his supervisor Adam Foster can provide me with the website address. He had an accent as thou of an Indian descent. I verified my information with a level of skepticism. He provided me with a money approval number and said to call Adam Foster at 202-738-1971 to claim my grant money.
I called Adam Foster at the number provided and he picked up the phone and said to call back in 15 minutes as he tries to pull up my file. Immediately I noticed that his accent was slightly Indian as he tried very hard to sound Americanized at times when speaking to me. Adam told me immediately that since I choose the cash option to claim the money that I would need to go through a verification process and have $280 in cash to take to a Western Union location and begin the verification process but that the money would be refunded to me. He cautioned me that while at the western union location, I should not tell anybody I was there to claim grant money but just state if asked that I was there to make a personal transaction. He said I needed to follow the process very carefully in order not to compromise the process by ensuring that I call him first before I enter the doors of the western union location.
Adam was very persistent in his approach and process and when I told him that western union does accept debit cards and not only cash, he tried to convince me that they are fees I would incur if I used a debit card and that I would not want that. He even went as far as stating that the states taxes on the amount I would receive if I were to inform a western union agent that I was there to receive a grant would be too high for me so it was important that I kept my mount shut and just did as he said while I was at the western union location.
A few minutes later, I pretended to be at the western union location and told him that I was inside the building. He screamed at me and said it was important that I called him first and not enter the building. I told him I walked back out of the building but then he said I needed to follow the process from then henceforth. He told me to pick up a form and take it to my car and fill it out there while he stayed on the phone with me. I pretended to do just that and came back and told him the line was too long that I needed for him to send the instructions to me in my email on how to claim the money or wait until another day. His tone of voice immediately changed as he yelled at me saying this is $9000 that you can’t wait in line to receive? It is a lot of money and he could not believe I don’t want to stand in-line to receive the money. He said this is not child’s play and that when I am ready to call him back as he immediately hung up.
Please be advise that this scam artist are fearless and even when I told him I was with a representative from the Police Department and the representative was listening to the conversation he seemed unshaken by that and just said it was important that I kept the conversation private. Some of the things other should look for when you receive calls of this nature are the fact that the contact person is refusing to provide you any real information that can identify them properly or their company when there are queried such as were they are located and their employee ID’s as examples. If I did not know better, I would have fallen for this scam as this people were very convincing in their approach. Please beware.
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