202-657-5331

I received a call from Gary Watson and Susan saying the Federal Govt had awarded me a 5,000 grant and to western union 190.00 dollars to them to verify my identity. Then they would send the money and the 190.00 processing fee right back. Thank God for wisdom. They almost got me.

please listen carefully to any phone call that you get a call from this number, they tell you that you will get a 5000 grant that is free, they tell you that is from the government and that is free, but here is the catch you have to wire money to India the country. ask yourself if you have anyone in India and that's your clue, pleeeeeeeeasse be smart.

My step mom did this and now she is out of 1700 bucks! Does anyone know what we should do? I told her that this was a scam but she didnt listen. What can we do?

To get your money back you have to find the scammer and have them arrested.  The scammer is probably in a 3rd world country that does not consider scamming Americans to be a crime and does not cooperat with US law enforcement.  

Your step mom's money is gone.  She will not get it back.  Consider it a very expensive lesson.

I just got a call from Victor Smart who told me to call Gary Watson to start my 5000.00 grant money process. They both sounded very foreign not American. They wanted me to pay a fee of $120.00 to pick up my money from Western Union. Do not give them any of your account numbers or pay them anything. If they can't mail you cash then do buy it. They are frauds and there is no way to find them.  Being the playful type that I am I played with Gary and told him I didn't have bank accounts and didn't have $120.00, no, I don't have anyone to borrow it from .I asked him if he could just take it out of the 5000.00 he is going to send me. He said no and I needed to get the $120.00 before he could process my grant, I asked for a check and he said the Fed Govnt no longer issues checks. (haha). I asked him to loan me the money, he asked if I was sick, I told him I was that's why I needed his money. He said for me to go to the bank and try to borrow it. I asked him if Victor could loan it to me and he said try and then he hung up.  You can tell they are calling from a call center, lots of voices in the back ground. Please do not get caught up in this and lose you $$$$$.

Sir,
Please DO NOT malign any country especially India for any of these email and phone scams just because American companies have their BPO and IT sourced from there. I also got a call from Victor Smart today - he sounded like speaking in a Spanish / European accent. Also this 202-.... number is from New Jersey.
There is not a single instance or proof of these email and phone scams originating from India. The people there are honest and hard working like all of us here in the US.

You should doubt such calls in the first instance itself - the US government can't even refund our Federal returns let alone "awarding" anyone for their honesty! However, I wonder why any investigative agency is not able to track these guys???