Advantage America Scam, Government grants awarded Winter Park Florida

These people called my disabled husband and woke him from a nap stating he had been awarded a $25,000.00 federal grant. He gave them the requested bank information for deposit of said grant, and then was told there would be a $49.95 fee for processing. at that point he told them there was NO way he was authorizing such a thing. This was mid-January 2006.

On 1/19/06, just after our bank's statement cycle, $49.95 was taken from our account with an actual check which a) was 20,000 numbers higher than any check WE ever cashed, but also had verbage in the signature line that stated "No signature required, customer approved".

Sometime in late January we received a letter to my husband regarding health insurance, which he does not need as he has workers comp, the VA and Medicaire, stating they would withdraw $299.95 from our account. This was MY first clue something wasn't right, and my husband called their 866# the next day telling them in no way, shape or form was that money to come out. He was assured that only $49.95 would be deducted... until the $299.95 was taken via the same physical check mentioned before on 2/1/06.

The bank's 800# offered no hope (Washington Mutual, with whom we've banked for over 12 years), and the subsequent bounce charges and what not have forced us to close that account.

I wrote to the BBB in FLorida and got an immediate response from Advantage America's Crystal Brown, who assured us a FULL refund was on the way for both transactions. We have only received one check, for the initial $49.95 and the verbage on the endorsement part of the check reads "UNDER PENALTY OF LAW YOU CERTIFY THE FOLLOWING: By depositing or cashing this check I ackknowledge and agree that if the original debit that is associated with this refund is subsequently returned for any reason, Payment Processing Center may use any and all remedies available by law to recover their loss. I hereby authorized Payment Processing Center to debit the full amount of the transaction from my checking or savings account."

A)......They AIN'T writing a check on money that hasn't been cleared.

B) You are (by virtue of the "authorized") giving them exactly what they want and need........your signature authorizing the debit.

Still haven't seen a check for $299.95 (not that we'd be stupid enough to deposit it either), but all in all, hubby learned a valuable lesson, I'm going to spend a long time trying to recoup a loss I'll probably never see and worked too hard NOT to have, and one more group of scumbags gets away with ripping off someone who can't defend themselves.

You always think it'll happen to someone else.. NOPE. It can happen to you.

Kathie
Seaside, Oregon
U.S.A.