My letter to the Michigan Attorney General
This is the letter I sent off to the Attorney General today. I just wanted to warn as many people as I can that this is happening. I believe this must be some group from overseas, because of the way the number shows up on my caller id. While I was speaking to this person, I could hear lots of other people talking in the background, it sounds like a typical telemarketer boiler room.
I am writing to you because I have received phone calls from these people twice this past week, and I am concerned that someone will fall for this attempt at identity theft.
The first time they called, I refused to answer any questions with sensitive, personal information, hoping they would just stop. Instead, I received another call from them this evening (a different operator), so instead of refusing I simply made up answers to see just what sorts of questions they would ask. It was amazing how blatant they were.
The number shows up on my caller id as 999-999-1234. The caller has a thick accent, and the connection is very 'crackly', like a cell phone in a bad area. They already have my name and address when they call.
They told me they were calling from "Washington Financial Grant Services", and that they have been contacted by the "Federal & State Grant Commission" to distribute grants. I have already been approved for an $8000 grant, simply because I have been paying taxes 'all these years'. The schpiel is that the government puts 10% of all of our taxes into this fund, and the government picks random taxpayers to give 'grants' to out of this fund. Of course, it's a "once in a lifetime" thing and the deadline is "today" (even though they have now called me twice). They even gave me another 'customer service' number that I could call if I had any questions after the call, it was 866-623-4123.
They want to send me 'documents' to claim my grant, but before they can they need to 'verify' that my information is accurate and that I really do have an account. They keep insisting that they'd hate to see me 'lose my money', and keep telling me it happens all the time.
They asked my Date of Birth, How long have I lived at this address, How long have I had this phone number, My bank's name and street address, the bank tracking number, my account number and my mother's maiden name.
I'm afraid it started to fall apart by this time, since I was making up answers (there was no way I'd give them anything even close to the true answers), but apparently they have a way to verify the bank's tracking number and they (of course) couldn't verify the phony number I gave them. When I offered to simply take the papers to the bank and let the bank fill in the correct numbers, the caller first got upset, then the connection finally went dead.
If you have any further questions that I may be able to help with, you may call me, my cell number is xxx-xxx-xxxx.
Hopefully, you will issue an alert regarding this, I am concerned that someone will fall for this obvious scam.
