My husband and I had been searching for a government grant to repair our home and start a business. After visiting a grant locator we were directed to a company called Nationwide Consulting. We quickly read the website information that was provided and agreed to give it a try. Shortly thereafter a woman by the name of Joan Dunne had contacted us and explained for a ONE TIME fee of $299.00 that would be debited out of our bank account, she could then send us the grant application that we would fill out and send back to Nationwide Consulting. She provided us with a phone number of 888-342-7772 and said if we did not recieve the application within three weeks to call her back and she would resend it. Four weeks later, we still did not have the application in hand.
We called the number and once again spoke to Joan Dunne who quickly explained to us that they were backed up and the application was on its way. I asked Joan once again how this all worked and she said after the initial application was recieved, it would then be submitted to government agencies by the attorney's that they work with to find the grant that we most qualify for. Joan further explained to allow six to eight months for a response and that if we do not qualify for any grants we would at least recieve $5,000.00 as a consulation.
Well, it has been a year since my husband and I poured our life on paper and provided them with our account number (which was supposed to only be used for the one time fee and direct deposit of a grant), not to mention our business plan that we used to try and get a grant to start a business. The website they used, www.nationwideconsulting.com is no longer working, nor did it provide even an email address to contact them when it was and the phone number they provided is no longer working as well. My husband and I are outraged that we lost our $299.00, not to mention embarassed of our stupidity. We have fallen victim to a scam and we pray no one else falls victim to this woman and this company and we would like to see this company and individual get what they deserve (legally) and pay back everyone they scammed.
Since we allowed Nationwide Consulting to debit our account, we also were victims of identity theft when someone used our account to withdraw over $1,200.00 from our account. We since had to change our bank account.
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