Complaint Review: Government Grant Processing Center

I, unlike many of you who have reported on here who were more keen than I, was scammed by the "Grant Government Processing Center" out of Las Vegas, NV (supposedly.) Normally, I do not answer "unknown caller" on my caller i.d., but sometimes people I know come up as unknown, so I answered. When I answered the phone, as many others have described, I was greeted by a woman with an Indian accent who spoke about a million miles a minute. I guess I was kind of in a whirlwind of information at first and tried to get her to slow down and explain what was going on. Needless to say, I for some reason bought into it and finally (after much resistance) stupidly gave up my account information. I am a college student who already has financial troubles and thought at first it was a scholarship grant I had applied for.

Call me naive, but I did not realize that these people can say anything to you over the phone to get your information (anything!). In fact, I was unaware of scams like these. I immediately went online to check this out, although I should have done it while I was still on the phone. (Trust me, i'm still kicking myself.)

Then I called the number to cancel, and was greeted with a message that says "the number you are calling does not exist." I called my bank as soon as Monday rolled around, and they said that I needed to put a stop payment on the check. I did so for the check number that I supposedly "set aside" for this payment (which cost me $20). But since they used another "fake" check number to withdraw the money from my account, the stop payment did not work. Better yet, I was not able to get my paycheck in on time so my account was overdrafted.

If you have bought into this like it did, I do not know what to say to prevent the check from going through. But it can be reversed...unfortunately, it takes up to 10 business days! I am hoping that all my fees will be reversed. I'm just not sure what to do at this point.

I learned my lesson the hard way. I hope that these people will be stopped, and I hope this report helps someone else.

Jackie
Gunnison, Colorado
U.S.A.