Last week, I told you about these morons who called me up offering to give me free money…all for $29.95 and unfettered access to my bank account. I'm still researching info about these clowns…but it seems like every single day a new report on these people get filed at ripoffreport.com. What's funny is that the two addresses I showed to you in the rant last week are the same two addresses they're still using. Currently I'm looking for ways to escalate this manner, having already reported it to the FTC (and yes, they responded and put the complaint on file.)
My suggestion to anyone who reads this that if you hear from telemarketing agency offering to give you a huge amount of money for a little bit of your own, challenge them and make them guarantee it. Or just tell their ass not to call you ever again. Because either would be better than to give them your bank account to funnel money into God knows what. I mean, hello? Terrorism? Sex trades? Why would anyone give their banking info to somebody who they don't know and just called them on the phone? The fact that someone even offers you $12,000 for your $29 should be a huge red flag.
If they're so certain that these grants are "your" money, but then they need some of "your" money to send it to you, they should be able to withdraw the money they need from the 12 grand they're about to send you, no? From all the research I've done, this "bank" has a typical method of operation of a "419", or "Nigerian Scam". Here's what this specific scam entails:
- The salesperson always uses some general "American" name, but almost always will have an accent of East Asian descent.
- They always claim it's "your" money when referring to the grants, and claim that you qualify because you filed some tax return in some year. Understand, the only way that you would have gotten money from the federal government via filing a tax return is if you were eligible for a tax refund, which you should already have received.
- They will never give you a guarantee as to when these funds will be delivered, and they will always ask you for your bank account info.
- Government grants aren't just handed out ad hoc through some telemarketing agency posing as a bank, either. The money comes from a specific branch of the government, as each branch has specific programs that they have to allocate the funds through. You have to apply, and then the government has to approve the grant. And, most importantly, this does not cost you anything to do; you either qualify for the grant or not. You can get that info at FirstGov.
- Even if you ask them initially when you'll see the money, they will talk around the issue. In fact, they will tell you that they will send you something by rush delivery, but you should have your check in 6 weeks. So…they can rush deliver you some piece of crap paper, but not the check?
- If they actually send you anything, it's a listing on how you can get the same grant services that you can find through FirstGov or likewise. That is, if it isn't a blank piece of paper. However by then, they might have already stolen away up to $350 or more of your money, with unfettered access to all your funds in the account, and you get left holding the sheet of paper, as it were.
- They will either list an address in Miami or Charlotte, although these address in my research came up with freight logistics companies and office parks. So, don't even bother writing a complaint notice. Get the address, then report them to the BBB, FTC and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Yes, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. They are a law enforcement agency who can investigate mail fraud and telemarketing fraud as well.
If you have been defrauded already, challenge it at your bank if the charge was accrued to your account. Challenge it quickly…do not hesitate. Then contact your State's Attorney General's office, and advise of the problem. And it would also be a great idea to add any and all numbers you have to the FTC's "Do Not Call" registry, too. Because these scammers are like one big giant crime family, and chances are if this one doesn't get you, they'll try again with something else.
It's probably best that you didn't deal with them at all. It's plain and simple: these dopes are committing fraud on so many levels, it's ridiculous. I don't pretend to be a hero, but this crap just pissed me off. I know what losers like these do to people who are already down to their last. I'm just trying to make sure that it doesn't happen to me or anyone I know.
I just had a call to day sounding a lot like this. I did give them my acount info and now I am really worried. The company that called my said they are Freeline Finanical services. They gave me their name. .Which was Igna John and Her Id number which was #222. THey did not give me an internet site and they gave me a customer service number. When I called to cancel because I did not feel comfortable about it. She said they cant do it for 5 days. IS this a real company or should i go directly to my bank and cancel my accounts with them.
WOW i am so worried the same thing just happened to me not even 20 min ago. I got a call on my personal cell # from 213-000-0000 and the man wo i could barley understand ( sounded like he was a middle esterner)right away he addressed me by my first name.. he sd he was from the us federal government and his name was john . that i had be selected out of billins of people to recieve a grant from the us goverenement for paying my taxes on time, BUT this is the scary thing i did not have to give any information they gave it all to me, my fullname first middel and last my address the bank i bank with athe rounting and my chcking account #. when i questioned he more he woukd just rambell on and mov to the next question he said i would get the money before x-mas and i would only have to pay a service fee of $29.99, i asked for more info and an phone # he sadi they do not have one they have a website, i asked for the website and he had informed me that all i need to do is google goverment tax refund grants, then my phone died i am so worried….
PLEASE, everyone that reads this, listen to what I am going to tell you. 100% of these government grant things that you receive over the phone or through email ARE SCAMS….PERIOD…. END OF STORY…. but you might say, well what about this and what about that. Yes, Government grants are real, BUT, you don’t need someone applying for you, you can do it yourself right through the government directly.
Now that you have the, “rest of the story”, you can only blame yourself if you get SCAMMED.
One last piece of advice, if you want to know if something is a scam (say some offer from a internet company that wants to sell you a make money online type of thing, whatever it is) type in whatever the name of the place is, ex: “free grant Money” and then after that put, is it a scam. So it would read – free grant money, is it a scam. If anyone has had dealings with this company there will be comments about it.
You can also look up, scam busters.com or don’t get scammed.com and get info also. OK, listen to me now, when you look up these scam buster.com sites, if they reccommend ANY PROGRAM, ANY PROGRAM. Make sure you check it out also. Just because one of these scam busting sites reccommends a particular on-line business doesn’t mean it is lagit. I was checking out an on-line business and wanted to find out if it was a scam so I went to one of these sites and they said it was lagit, but then when I checked FURTHER by calling the business in question, the phone wasn’t working and several other things weren’t right. SO, I would have lost my money if, I had not check further. The bottom line is: if you don’t check and double check and re check all of your other double checks, YOU ARE GOING TO GET SCAMMED AT SOME POINT… Do you think I am being a little TOO CAREFUL, THINK AGAIN BUCK-O. Being careful is not enough these days, you must be ultra careful and then you still might get scammed. I look at it this way, if you loose $49.95, it’s not going to break the bank. It might accually be a good thing for some people. Think about it this way; if you get scammed for a few dollars (say $49.95) then from now on you will have your guard -up when someone wants you to buy that $1000.00 dollar scam. You have just payed a school of hard knocks payment, but later on it, just, might, save you thousands in the future
I have alot more information, but not on a website. Here is my website though,
http://www.firstpackout.com It is a site for turkey, deer, elk and any big game that you need to pack-out from the woods. Anyway, hoped this information helped some of you, and thanks for looking at my site,
John
You can post all scam and fraud incidents to global fraud monitoring search engine, http://www.scampond.com
Ahmed, as it so happens…I’m working on an active one at this moment.