On a Thursday evening, 19 Jan I received a call on my cell phone stating that I was eligible to receive a grant of $12,500 and that I would not have to pay it back and the guy, with a very heavy Indian accent, asked me if I was a tax payer and I said yes. He went on to explain why I would be receiving the grant because I pay my taxes and blah, blah, blah. He told me his name was Shaun Cooper and gave me his ID # 1461 and the address of this government company in Winter Park, Fl and the website advantageamerica.com. He asked if I had filed my taxes last year and I said no' and he asked if I would file and I said yes, I will. I was thinking that I could use the money because I am going to school right now and that it would help me so much but then I started wondering if this was legit. He explained that I would not have to pay it back but pay a small, one-time fee of $49.95. It would take 4-5 days for the package to arrive and that it would take 30-45 days for the grant to be wired in my account. The guy was explaining that my check would be transacted in 2-days but that if I was not able to pay the amount of $49.95 I could call the 800-number and work out a payment plan.
He went on to ask me what bank I banked with, my bank information, address and phone number. I told him the name and the city and I went ahead through the process giving him my personal information. I went through this 3-way call and went through a series of recordings to enter my information in an automatic message service. He kept repeating that after I give my info that he would give me an 800 to call and a grant access code and just for getting into this that I would receive a complimentary free trial on a health benefit package as well as some long-distance phone call offer and trial and then I started thinking that I don't want to go through all this just for a grant so I opted out of the offers and then received this 800 number to cancel with a member ID in which he pressed the button to repeat the number. But then I got cut off after I had made the last entry of personal information over the phone into the automated voice message system.
Then I thought cautiously after it all that I should not have given my personal information and to go to my bank and cancel the check I did over the phone and then possibly change my account because now they have my information.
So today, I went to check out the company on the internet and saw that it was listed on the complaint and read about the various scams that this company has been doing to other people. Now I have put a stop payment on the check and am going to switch accounts so they don't rip me off. I just wish that I had been more cautious about it when I first received the phone call.
Hopefully I have helped others from my experience not to fall for this scam! Please be aware of unidentified phone calls and suspicious offers such as this. Your first instinct is always right!
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