Government Grant Processing Center Warning: ripoff Unsolicited, fraudulent offers for federal grant assistance Saint Petersburg Florida
Received calls (with no caller ID) from a person saying with a south asian accent (said his name was Gino Carter) claiming I had been approved for a government grant for at least $8,000. I only needed to pay the $257 grant application filing fee to be able to receive the funds.
They requested my bank account information so that they could get the $8,000 deposited to my account and also withdraw the funds in a few weeks after receiving the grant.
They gave a P.O. Box and 800 Number (which I called from another line while on the phone with them... reaching a voice mail message of a Grants Guide and Processing Center). I also searched online while on the phone and found numerous reports of fraud & scams along these lines
When I told him that I would be happy to look at any information they would send me while I did some diligence about their company, he became more insistent. Finally, when I told him that I would at no point be giving him any of my banking information for the fee since fraudulent transactions would not be reversable, he hung up.
So, I did not get ripped off, but the caller was extremely persistent. Please BEWARE!
A.B.
Denver, Colorado
U.S.A.