I just got a call from "Douglas Williams" of Government Grant Information Center. He told me we were selected and one of the 10,000 people that would be awarded this grant. The grant was for $5000. Being overly optimistic, I listened to what he said and confirmed everything without giving out stuff that he didn't tell me first.
Then it got to the bank account. Being not the head of the house but over 21, I was able to accept it. I, however, did not want to and said I'd rather have it in my mom's name. After arguing a bit, he said fine, what bank does she use. I proceed to tell him it as it's not too personal info but start becoming less optimistic because if I'm going to have it accepted in my mom's name, why didn't he insist on talking to her instead of me? I could give out random personal info and he wouldn't care.
Then came the account number. Here I argued over and over that I would not give account numbers, social security, or any other personal personal info. He 'assured' me that they were not asking for credit card numbers or any authorizations so it was completely safe. This is where it got nasty. He tried to read me the routing number (not very hard to find given the city and bank) and refused to send anything to apply "since I was not registered yet, we have to verify."
I proceeded to look up the name and found tons of records of scams from the same name. Seems like they've been doing this for quite a while and don't care that it's listed everywhere as a scam. I argue with him that it is recorded everywhere and he blows up and says "we are not a scam! We are a government agency and if you don't want this money then ok! I don't care! You could have gotten $5000 like the rest of the 9000 people (note: he told me it was 10000 just a few minutes before) but if nevermind!" Next few moments were kinda fun where I basically yelled back while he -tried - to talk. Finally he hung up.
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