Grant Masters review: Fraud 23

I recently ordered a CD for Google for $1.97 and never received the CD. Last month their was $72.00 being taken out of my account from another company because of this and I got that taken care of, and now Grant Masters is taking $38.34 out of my account this month. There is no phone number or address attached to it that the bank can give me to call the people to tell them to cancel this. I have googled it and have still not found anything. I did finally find a phone number for them and called Grant Masters and of course I'm not in their system. I have been doing more research and have discovered there is more than 1 phone number for this place, how do I know which is right? So I have gotten no where and would like my money back! Any ideas on what to do about this? E-mail me at notwgirl25@aol.com.

Grant Masters charged my account on June 2, 2009 for $38.34. They were not authorized to do so... I've never heard of them and it's a new card! I tried calling but no answer. I've sent the data to the FBI field office near me (easy to find on line). I hope everyone tells the FBI so they get shut down. I plan to follow up with a phone call to the FBI tonight when I get off work.

While looking over my bank records I saw a charge on my account from Grant Masters [protected] for $38.34. I dont even know what this is when I call the 800# to speak to someone about this they were closed. I am going to the police station and my bank this if fraud I never authorized a charge on my card.

Today we checked our online bank statement and we found that $38.34 charge pending for Grant masters.I have not even heard the name and didn't order anything.I called the number but no response. Does anyone know the phone numbers because the toll free numbers aren't working.Plzzzzzz i need help.

Well these snakes are prolific... seems they reached Canada too. Same problem as everyone else... I was curious about an ad by Google on Facebook and applied for info about working from home ( I've learned my lesson). Next thing I know I got two withdrawls from my Visa card for $45.08. I cancelled my card right away and will be filling a complaint everywhere I can think of ... lets get these ... Fraud hurts everyone.

I have also had the same problem first with blazing words finally got some one to refund my money, which I am still waiting for.Now today I recieved my visa bill With more charges on it from Grant master's.I called and freaked out with threats to the police and visa and who ever else I could think of.The guy on the phone(Peter) was his name said that when you sign up for one all your personal information is passed around to the same types of sites who already have your card numbers because of the first company.So anyone who tried to get the google thing for 1.97 he said there was a small box at the top explaining that your info is shared to other sites, which is why we are all getting charges for other things we didn't even sign up for.So far I have been promised a refund for the first one, and he was sending a report to the grant master's requesting that they give me back my money.Also when I said I was cancelling my visa card he said if I did they would not be able to credit my card...sounds fishy to me.When I call my card company tomorrow I will find out about that.The number I called was the one above [protected].Thanks and hope everyone gets their money back.

CLOSE YOUR ACCOUNT! That is probably the ONLY way to escape! I was scammed also, it made me sick...just trying to get my monies back!
good luck

my account has been charged mutiple times by this A1 members, & i also have been through the same red tape trying to obtain my refund for more than $100 worth of charges. Which I explained to person I spoke with I have never recieved as much as an email in regards to this supposed account I have. I want my MONEY.

cheers for that. i was intrested in looking into that but now i know not to trust it =]

I guess I'm not alone on this. I was billed $73 this morning and the number on my statement was disconnected. Looks like everybody else had the same problem. but yeah so my bank was able to track down the right number for me - [protected]. I called them and got my money back. Hope this helps. Good luck.

I too tried to sign up for the fake google website $1.97 get rich quick offer...what an idiot I was...now I have a grant master bill on that same credit card for $38.34. I am going to file a dipute-I called them and of course they are closed...hopefully i can get the credit card company to erase this amount and I am going to cancel my credit card and have it re-issued with another number. I would suggest the same for anyone else and that includes bank accounts or credit cards-don't think they won't try it again! Good luck to all of us!

Found this and thought it might help...

The most efficient and effective way to throw a monkey wrench into this scam machine.
(article from http://scam-googletreasurechest.blogspot.com/)

Steps to Take to Recover Your Money

1. Cancel your credit or debit card--Get a new card with new number! Your financial information has been compromised and you will be getting further debits to that card, If not now then they could come back later when you are unaware. This scam is refining into a form of "Identity theft" as your financial information is being traded to other cohorts without your permission or knowledge.

2. File a fraud charge with your credit card or bank and let them sort it out. They have more muscle to go after this sort of crime. Explain to them about all the consumer complaints that are on the internet and "insist" that they do charge-back or file a fraud charge. Your bank or credit card organization has all the tools necessary to find out where the charges are coming from, what business is involved, addresses and phone numbers connected to the charge and etc. You may not know or have access to this information. The banks and credit card org have all this at their fingertips and are obligated to handle the problem that has resulted.
More info at: http://www.chrismalta.com/scamtip1.asp

3. File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. Their job is to monitor and go after these types of scams.
http://www.ftc.gov/ftc/cmplanding.shtm

4. File a complaint with your state Attorney General and also with the Attorney General of Utah (where a lot of the phone numbers and addresses seem to be located)

5. Filing a complaint with the BBB is toothless as the scam already is rated with a "F".

6. File complaint at http://www.ic3.gov/default.aspx This is a place to report internet crime and is a combination gov agency of FBI, White collar Crime and Bureau of Justice Assistance.

7. After you filed with all the above agencies feel free to call any numbers you may possess that are connected to the "unauthorized charges" to try and recover all your money but take their word with a grain of salt. Don't hesitate to let them know what you have done or intend to do as they need to be shown that you mean business! If you succeed in getting your money returned you will have still taken steps to put their scam out of commission.

Jessyca...

The same thing happened to me. I cancelled my account 6/4 but on 6/23 two charges for $38.34 were charged on my card. I called the company and talked to a girl supposedly named Amy. She could barely speak english and she hung up on me the first time I called. The second time I got the same girl but this time she told me that she could not authorize a refund on my account until the next. She told me I would have to call back tomorrow. When I asked her to explain why she could not refund my account today, but could tomorrow, she blurted off a bunch of none sense in an accent I could hardly follow. When I asked to speak to someone else, I was told that was not a possibility. Long story short I was very fet up with all of this... I signed up in hope of finding money for school and only ended up losing it. :(

A friend advised me to call the credit card company and file a dispute. They should take the charge off your account and they will deal with the company. I'm thinking it might also be a good idea to cancel my card. Today I had another random charge show up on my account, "Powersale [protected]" for $72.21. I don't know if their is any relation, but I would suspect that their is.

Jessyca as you continue to seek out answers... good luck. This company is as crooked as they come. I thank you for all the time you have already invested and I hope that we can all work together and bring them down.

Kris

I was also scammed and will tell you that when you cancel demand a confirmation number at the time you call. They will try to email it to you, but they will not. I was supposed to be canceled last month but they did not and this is a company affiliated with the google on the web get a free software and free trial for 1.97 shipping and handling . Make sure you have to have your credit or debit card canceled and get a new one as they will still bill you.

Hi belly,
thanks for ur advice and we have informed to fraud divison of our bank. Plz tell me what information they asked when you called them? yesterday when i tried that number it told plz call in business hours, i will keep trying that number.Now im scared to give any details like contact info and so on.Plz tell me what they asked did they asked for credit card info etc. so that i will be alert if any1 picks and answers the phone.Did they deposited your money again? because this transaction started on 19th of june but we saw yesterday only and it is in pending is there anyother way to stop it getting deducted from our account.I am waiting for your reply and then only i am going to call them.Plz reply.

I also have been scammed by Grant Masters. I don't even know who they are. I've reported this to my bank (fraud division). I will try to call the number as given by 'belly' in the above posting. The bank also gave me the same number and I have agreed to press charges against them to my bank. I am furious about this. I will go as far as necessary to have these people stopped.

we succeeded in getting our $ back from Grant Masters w this # [protected] give it a try good luck!

i just got off the phone with this company to get my money refunded.

[protected] this is for grant masters

there is, however a company called grant master (not masters) that is fraud also.

Me too - 38.34, never heard of them. I called the 800 number and the rep said she couldn't pull up my account b/c they were having "technical difficulties" and of course the supervisor was "in a meeting". I'm worried b/c she wanted to look up my acct. by phone number, so I tried both our cel phone numbers. Is there anything they could do with those?

I just got a charge from them as well and called the 800# listed on my bill (800.926.0273)- they said I'd signed up for it (which I NEVER have) and cancelled it but will not give me a refund b/c the 'trial period' is up. I waited on hold to talk to a manager (the customer service guy kept giving me the run around saying the manager would tell me the same thing. I blew up on him and demanded he put him on the phone or I'd report them right then. He put me on hold for 25 minutes b/c I demanded to speak to the manager. When the manager finally came on (who sounded an awful lot like the original guy) he told me the same thing and told me that I DID sign up for the account by not opting out of some option on another account. They told me I had to send an email with a certain thing in the subject line to support@grantmasters.com in order to obtain a refund. They said you have to put the following in the subject line, "RR609 refund for for Grant Masters Online".

I did that and am waiting on a response and I also submitted a BBB report on them and have been assigned a case manager.

If you google this company you will find they have quite the reputation for their scam and on the BBB- their business rating is an F. They have much more information about the scam on the BBB website (though they are NOT accreditted through BBB) and they go by many different names (Grant Masters aka Benefit Member Pro/Member Reward Center is the main name it came up with). An affiliated co. is what I signed up under which the BBB has investigated (with no help or response after their inquiry to Grant Masters) and could only say that they are somehow related and share a maildrop. It's very shady. You can find their summary at the following link: http://www.bbb.org/utah/business-reviews/government-grant-services/benefit-member-pro-member-reward-center-in-orem-ut-22220253.

I'm also going to file a dispute with my credit card company- who knows what other companies now have my credit card info. and will use it in this same way! I can't believe I was so stupid here, but wanted to share what I found to combat this.

Hi, I was reading over the comments and I just had a similar thing happen to me too. I was charged $79.95 from my account for Grant Masters and I call their 1 800 number and they say they are closed and clearly I called them at nine o'clock. I called my bank but I am still worried that they got my bank information and will do it again. can anyone give me any advice.

I just received a charge from Grant Masters does anyone know what this is for?

I was also charged $38.34. I am going to the police and my bank to get this issue solved.