By KRIS REILLY (column sig in library) Updated at 8:09 PM
Dale Logue, of Oak Hills, called me Tuesday after he encountered — and nearly fell for — a new twist on an old scam.
We’ve tackled “grant” scam calls before; in the past the caller was typically a person purporting to be a government official from, say, the U.S. Treasury, telling victims they’ve earned a grant worth a few thousand dollars just for being a good citizen.
All they need is your bank account or credit card number.
This is, of course, your cue to hang up. This swindle is a variation of the old “Spanish Prisoner” scam: send me a little money, and I'll send you a lot more later.
Logue, 60, sounded like a bright guy when I spoke to him, and he was more than a little embarrassed at how close he came to losing a large sum of money. Logue also told me he has “medical bills up the wazoo” because his wife is fighting cancer. This is the kind of financial desperation scammers prey on.
It also sounds like the swindle Logue encountered was a bit more slick and offered a new spin on the “grant” con.
The main difference here is that instead of pretending to be government officials, these grifters presented themselves as a private company that assists people in obtaining government grants. Logue said they were very professional and legitimate-sounding.
It's a longer con, involving multiple phone calls. Somewhere along the way, Logue revealed his wife’s health problems, and he said the swindlers used that information and pounced on it.
“They had me completely taken,” Logue said. “I talked to a few people, got a few different call-backs, then they ask for your credit card number.”
And Logue gave it to them.
They supposedly asked for the credit card number because they were going to load his grant money into that account. But then they asked to charge his credit card for an upfront fee, which they had previously said they wouldn't do.
That’s when the revelation that he was being swindled hit Logue, and he immediately canceled the credit card. Logue is not out any money, but he called the whole ordeal “embarrassing.”
His main purpose in calling me was to warn others about the supposed company, which he says called itself “Grant Centers of America.” Googling it doesn’t take you to any kind of website for a company by that name, at least not in the top several results. The only thing you’ll find is a thread on a consumer affairs website about something called “American Grant Center” — and the online reviewers say the company is a scam.
On its Grant.gov website, the U.S. government states in no uncertain terms that it will not call you to offer grants or charge you money to get them. I would be just as wary of anyone purporting to be a third-party grant-securing company and asking you to pay upfront.
Logue’s story is a good reminder that financial troubles in our lives can make us more vulnerable to swindlers. Thankfully Logue saw the light before he made a bad situation worse.