A person with a heavy Indian accent calling himself 'Steven James' called me this morning stating I had been pre-approved to receive $12,000.00 from the IRS because I have paid my taxes for the last 5 to 10 years. I was immediately suspicious - since when does the governemnt give money to tax payers, especially when we have such a major deficit? He continued to state that I could use this grant money for anything I wanted there was no pre-determined purpose - I could even use it to pay bills or toward a house.
Anyway the call continued while I tried to figure out what was really going on. I asked the person several times 'is this a scam' and he kept getting more upset. He gave me a web site to check and also a phone number to call for the 'SC' area. He even offered to hold while I checked this information out. He then asked would he have given me this information if it was a scam? I said yes. It is easy to a) set up a web site and it isn't too costly these days. B) how difficult is it to have a phoney 800 number - not. C) it's also easy to make up an address or only be there temporarily.
When he asked for my bank routing I said I would have to check the information he gave me and would call him back using the SC line. I then hung up.
As soon as I got off the phone I went to the computer and searched on Google for 'First National Grant' and came to the consumer complaints for this 'company?'. I also searched the phone number he gave me. This same number is listed as part of a credit card scam. The web site looks like creditable, like they were using someone elses website in their scam. On the web site they mention that Federal and State grants have to be used for the purpose stated.
Cathy
Goose Creek, South Carolina
U.S.A.
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