According to my cell phone incoming call list, I received a call at 7:20PM from a three digit number, "750." The person I was speaking to told me his name was John, and did not give me a last name. John already had my name, address, and obviously my phone number and asked me if I was over the age of 18.
After I told him I was 19 years old, he asked me what type of grant it would be. The only thing I could think of was that it would be used for educational purposes, as I attend Washington State University. He seemed very nice and was very patient with me when I had a hard him understanding him, even though I don't have very good hearing and especially since he had a very thick accent. "John" said that he was from a company called Advantage America, who was contracted by the government to give out grants to chosen people after they take taxes from everybody else.
Even with my hesitation, my stupidity mixed with my very trusting nature, finally gave in and I found my account number at Americas Credit Union, but after I told him that was my savings account, which for some unexcusable reason is my social security number, he told me that the wire transfers had to be done through a checking account. I did not tell him that the savings account was also my social security number and he did not seem to notice, but I can only hope that he didn't catch on. My trust began to waiver, and he told me if I was uncomfortable, I could speak to his supervisor. When I asked, he was still talking over me, but since he talked very fast I didn't think he heard me and forgot about it.
Since I previously told him that I had two checking accounts, one with Washington Mutual and another through US Bank, he told me that he could wait for me to find the account numbers. When I told him that I don't have any checks and that I only deposit money through branch locations and spend money through my debit card, he asked me if I had any statements to find the account number from. I eventually found my checking account number card from when I opened the account less than a year ago, and then I gave him the number. He told me that I would have to go through a series of questions and record my information for verification.
He told me ahead of time that it would ask me to let $49.95 be taken out of my account, but that would only be after two business days when my grant money would already have come in. During the conversation I asked if I was going to be charged for this call to my cell phone and he told me that it wouldn't be. After about the third question after asking for my name, address, and phone number, etc... On the machine, which "John" already had to begin with, it asked me to say "yes" or "no" for Advantage America to take $49.95 from my account after the wire transfer of hundreds of dollars and up to a couple of thousands of dollars came in. When it came to that time in the recording, I hung up. Then another call came in from the number 409 at 7:42PM, which is right after I hung up. It didn't even take them 5 seconds to call me back.
This time I was talking to a lady I can't even recall giving me a name, and she asked me why I hung up. I told her that I forgot all of the directions that I was told and that I was uncomfortable with letting Advantage America taking money out of my account. She said that after I get my grant money, it would be taken out. When it came back to that question in the recording again, I said "no." Then she stopped the recording and asked me why I did that. I told her I was really uncomfortable with saying yes, and she assured me that everything was okay. So when it came back to that same question again, I gave in and said yes.
Then after a few more questions that I cannot remember, I interrupted the recording and told her that I wanted to stop.By the sound of her voice, I could tell that she was annoyed with me and asked me for a good reason why I didn't want to go through with this. I told her that I was really uncomfortable, but before I could even finish the word uncomfortable, she cut me off and asked me for a good reason. After I told her the same reason, she asked me again for a good reason to stop this wire transfer. She continued to harass me with that same phrase over and over again, until I said bye and hung up. After that, I had two or three more calls from that same 409 number but I never answered. Even though I should have gone online in the first place, I typed in "Advantage America" in the search engine Google, and on the first page it had mulitple complaints that were filed on the website usacomplaints.com, where people who had $49.95 taken out of their checking accounts and did not receive any money.
From all of the reports that I read, not only was $49.95 taken out, but everybody had more money taken out, some people even had over $200 taken out before they could stop the damage. There was even this one man whose 17 year old daughter gave out his checking account number, even though it was not even her account number to give out. On the website for all of the complaint files it has the company name, address, and phone number, but no e-mail address or a fax number. I called the phone number to complain to Advantage America about the lady that had continually harrassed me when I wouldn't comply, and also to make sure that no money would be taken out, I did not even hear the phone on the other end ring once, and after 10 seconds, the phone hung up. I called one more time, but the same thing happened.
I called tonight (11/20), and finally had at least something, which was just a answering maching saying that the phone system was overloaded with calls and could not accept any more calls due to the complications of the number of calls. So At this moment, I am on the that just keeps repeating that "all the customer representatives are on the phone. Please wait and someone will get to you shortly." I am no longer waiting on the phone, especially since I heard that same recording multiple times, at least over five times.
All I can think about is why I didn't ask more questions. My future occupation depends on asking questions, as I want to be a sports journalist, so I regret not asking why the government is so eager to give out grant money espcially with a $2 trillion external debt and how they got my phone number, since it was my cell phone. If they were contracted from the government, why did they not already have my social security number and I shouldn't have given up on asking why Advantage America had to take money out of my account. I couldn't understand him because less than average hearing, inability to understand his accent, and his rapid speech, so I didn't ask him more than twice. I still have many questions that I thought of after I realized my stupidity, but there are too many to list. Thank you for allowing me to file this complaint and I only hope that it will get through. The only truth that I can think of is in the name: Advantage America. Because they definitely took advantage of me.
Julie
Seattle, Washington
U.S.A.
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