Man with strong accent told me I was chosen to receive grant money in the amount of 8,220 USD. He gave me an approval i.D. (jo102). After I was foolish enough to give personal information they informed me that I would have to pay an one time fee of 257 USD at any Western Union (I still have ALL of the paperwork if this helps). After paying the 257 USD, I was informed shortly thereafter that I would have to pay "taxes" on the grant money which totaled 465 USD because I would get in "trouble" with the IRS if they did not get the above amount. I foolishly paid the "taxes" totaling 465 USD and was then told that the funds could not be released due to international laws regarding money transfers AND an additional 850 USD was needed to "complete" the transfer. At that point I cried and simply listened to the heavy accent scammer try to emphasize that this is not "his" transaction and the bank rules. I spoke with several individuals with heavy accents including a "Gilbert", "Vanessa", "Nick" and "Robert", with phone numbers as follows 202 470 0883,202 657 6862,202 470 4648. These characters have the "title" of Representatives of The Federal Reserve Bank with others parading around as representatives of the IRS that "filter" fund amounts over a certain dollar amount to stay in compliance with tax rules and regulations. They also stated that they represent the US Dept of Grants, with an email address of kbrownlow@usgov. Edu. I tried to email the address with a complaint and the email returned one day later stating that it took too long to reach the requested recipient.
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