How do I find out if the government grant company I just sent money to is a scam?

Question

I applied on line for a government grant. The next day they called me to tell me I was approved. I had to print out and sign a contract and send it with a cashiers check, for the grant writing fee, via express mail. Then call the customer service number and tell them the tracking number. A few hours later the agent taking care of me called me back to confirm the tracking number. I was told by them that I would recieve a packet in the mail in about 4 weeks. Included in the packet was a questionare to answer and be sure to sign with origional signature so the government knows it is an actual person recieving the grant. I was even given a PIN number I would need to access my account . If I don't get it within 4 to 6 weeks I am to call and they will track it down. They congratulated us again on getting the grant. They did not ask for personal information,checking account info or even soc. sec. number. It sounds legitimate but I've never done this before and am just now learning of scams.

Answer 1

I hate to say it but you just learned firsthand of scams, because you've been scammed. Good thing that they didn't ask you for personal information, checking account or soc. sec. #, because then your bank account would be empty by now, and your identity would already be stolen. Hope you didn't spend a lot of money, because it's gone, gone, gone. Your best bet is to contact your states Attorney General's office, and the Attorney General's office in whatever state you sent the check to, although it probably was a PO Box.

Answer 2

How would you know? If you did not apply at a .gov website -- meaning it is a government site -- then it is a scam. And from what you have written, it seems like a scam because that is NOT how the government works in terms of grant applications

You may want to read the warnings FTC has issued against these "grant" companies:

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2004/03/grantresources.htm
http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt134.htm

Here is also one of the warnings issued by the Better Business Bureau http://www.concord.bbb.org/tips_timesharescams.html

If you want government grants, you can go to the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) http://www.cfda.gov and Grants.gov http://www.grants.gov - these are two FREE sites created by the federal government to provide transparency and information on grants. Browse through the listings and see if you can find any grant that would support your purposes.

Even if you buy books on "how to get grants" or list that supposedly has information on grants -- all of them are mere rehash of what CFDA has, albeit packaged differently.

Note though that these grants generally support non-profit organizations, intermediary lending institutions, and state and local governments. Most of the federal grants are given to specific target groups with specific requirements (e.g. minority business owners involved in transportation related contracts emanating from DOT - Grant#20.905 Disadvantaged Business Enterprises Short Term Lending Program. Individuals especially for personal purposes are not eligible for federal grants.

Grants are also often given to non profit groups or organizations involved in training or other similar activities (grant 59.043 Women's Business Ownership Assistance that are given to those who will create women's business center that will train women entrepreneurs

Answer 3

It's true, more creative scams are reaching an all-time high because of our current disastrous economy so be wary.

It looks like a scam if they:
only have a PO box for an address, only contact is through email, unregistered phone number, out-of-state address, ask for anything with your signature on it, ask for any kind of wire transfer, ask for routing # on your personal checks, if you've been 'approved' for something you didn't apply for, 'approved' for something if you have disastrous credit, 'approved' for qualification when you barely gave them any information to conduct a proper screening, when they ask for too much info on you and they barely give you any, such as location of headquarters, name of the co.'s president, human resources person, etc.

Go to RipOffReport.com or the Consumerist.com and see if there's been any complaints or allegations concerning the sacred name of your grant guarantor. You'd be surprised how easy it is to register yourself as a fictitious 501(c)3 (that's non-profit corp. in laments terms). Those take your $$ and close shop and start over the process again in some other state.

Answer 4

Uh-huh, it was a scam. You made the cashiers check out to the US government? If not, didn't that make you suspicious? And if you were getting a grant, why would YOU be sending THEM money?

I hope the fee wasn't very high. The agent took care of you, all right. Kiss your money goodbye.

Answer 5

If you find the ad in the penny saver and they ask for your bank account number plus SS#. I almost got lured into that but knew better. Plus why would you have to send a cashiers check to receive free money? Think about it. You're sending cash for money they want to give you? Grants are free!!!!!!

Answer 6

sry , You got scammed!

file a complaint with http://www.ripoffreport.com and
http://www.ftc.gov also post a note on http://www.siteadvisor.com