Well a few weeks ago I just happened to answer and confirm who I was. The woman calling has a very strong accent, but she told me her name and it was very "american" This struck me as odd as I had never met someone with such a foreign accent that had such an American name.
I continued on the phone with her for about 15 minutes. He confirmed that I was over the age of 18, an American citizen, that I paid taxes, and most importantly that I had a valid checking account. She then told me that I was eligible for a $12,500 grant from the federal government. She said that they were contracted through the government to contact me to give me the money that they were REQUIRED to give back to me.
So I bit and continued to listen to her phone call as I am a college student with close to 7k in student loans to repay. Everything sounded ok throughout the call. She had my address, my phone number, my full name. He said that legal papers would be sent to me within 4 days for me to sign and return so that I would recieve my grant.
At the end of the phone call she said that she was going to transfer me to the verification department where I would input my bank account information into the system, that it was a recording for my protection AND theirs. Yeah... Right.
He put on what sounded like hold while he made a 3-way call. When someone did come back on the line I heard a recording asking for the representative ID # to which I was ready to enter in when I heard someone else on the line dialing. I figure this was her. Then she proceeded to enter my phone number into the system, so i followed along like a dummy. Then about a week later i was charged a $50 dollar fee "shipping and handling" supposedly for the paperwork which never came! Then about 2 weeks after that i was charged $299 with no explaination for the charge, when i saw that i felt sick instantly!!! I have been scammed!!!
This is a scam. I would not advise ANYONE to tell their checking account information over the phone. Sure enough, I looked up the company and was provided with hudereds of reports about this company.
Matt
Glendale, Oregon
U.S.A.
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