I too received the "You're the lucky grant winner from the Fed!" call, and even with laughably bad and obvious scams, I tend to placate the caller in hopes of finding out some useful information to report to the authorities.
They're apparently nailing some incredibly naive people with this tactic, getting them to head to Western Union and make a "security deposit" of a couple hundred bucks to a US Government affiliate in... India. Yes, of course. We've outsourced our legitimate jobs there, why not the con artists as well. I'm not sure I'd call them artists - this hoax was more like finger painting.
I too received a call from this number.
after i talked for amusement for a few minutes they said i needed to send a $210.00
via western union to handle "BANK FEE'S"
i told them i didn't have any money an told them i would contact them when i got paid.
i did some more investigating, and called them back..
first i heard some weird message about making free calls to the U.S...
then called back an asked to speak with a manager it kinda threw the guy who answered off.
first thing i said when the manager got on the phone was
"just to let you know this call is being recorded for the investigation that is now going to be done on you & your company"
then the "manager" flipped out on me literally started screaming saying he was going to sue me, take all my money an i dont even know when else..
I just got this same thing today. Is there anyway i can get this money back? I am so sick of people scamming me out of money for school. I need a number so I can get my money back for my pre med schooling. If anyone has a number or any info for me to get my money back please let me know. Pre med is not cheap and i thought this was for my grant i applied for.
I just got a call today. Saying that I got a $7,000 free government grant. And I had to get a Green dot money pack card and put $260.00 on it to be able to receive this "FREE" grant money.