I recieved a phone call today from a foreign gentleman telling me that I had been selected by the government to recieve a $12,500 grant. He asked me if my name was correct, and spelled my first, middle and last names correctly. He then verified my mailing address. I was suspicious and asked him how he got my phone #, being as how it was my cell #, and how he knew my mailing address. He told me that he was affiliated with the Federal Govt, and that the call was being recorded by the govt. He said that $12,500 was waiting to be deposited into my bank account in 3 business days and all he needed was my account info. I was very skeptical and asked several questions, to which he very smoothly gave me all the answers that I was wanting to hear. He also gave me the phone # and web address to the company. I then gave him an account # to an account that I rarely use. He then transferred me to the verification dept, which was going to verify all my info and give me a verification # that I was to give to my bank when they called me to make sure that I was expecting a $12,500 deposit from the Federal Govt.
I was transferred to someone else who then began to tell me that in 2 business days a $59.95 processing fee was going to be drafted out of my account. I questioned the fee to which the girl said, "Have you ever known the government to not have processing fees? This is their processing fee that they need in order to get you your money." She then said that in 3-5 business days that I would get a packet in the mail that I needed to fill out and return to them, and then in 7-14 days I would get my $12,500. At this point I knew I fell into a scam. The last guy said in 3 days I would have the $! And now they were going to draft $59.95 out of my account, send me some paperwork and THEN I would get my money! No way! But of course when I questioned all of this they had all the right responses. I went thru with the rest of the phone call to which they informed me that at the end of this year $299 would be drafted out of my account for next years grant that would automatically be mine. There was also some long distance thing that was attatched to it all that after a certain amount of time would be getting drafted from my account.
I hung up and immediately got online to research this. I found THIS website with all these bad reports. I also looked at their website which I found to be very uncomforting and vague. I then called the company back and said that I had just gotten off the phone with them 10 mins ago and decided to cancel. The lady told me that she could not find me in her system, and since I had just signed up to call back on Monday and I would be in the system. I told her she was full of crap... They had just called ME and told me my full name and mailing address!!! She came back with some lame response.
I immediately got dressed and went to my bank and cancelled my bank account and told them of the situation. Not an hour after I cancelled my bank account, I got a phone call from a "Private" number, which is how it came up before. I didn't answer it, but I am assuming it was them.
Hopefully this ordeal is over for me. I can't believe I fell for it, but they were very smooth talkers! That is the 1st and last time I give out any of my account info!
Thank you usacomplaints.com for this website which immediately confirmed my suspicions of being scammed!
Heidi
Atlanta, Georgia
U.S.A.
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