Port Charlotte man loses $1,500 in nationwide scam

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MGN

PORT CHARLOTTE, Fla. Kennith Bair recently fell victim to a nationwide scam – and claims a friend set him up.

“I mean somebody we went to school with wouldn’t get us into something like this,” he said. “Oh, she said she got her money and she cant figure out what to do with her $150,000 grant she got. And she was part of the whole scam.”

The friend send Bair a Facebook link to apply for a “homecare and family support grant.”

The link connected Bair and his wife with an agent who asked for personal information, including income, next of kin and copies of their drivers licenses.

They were quickly approved.

“This guy called us and said this is not a scam, it’s actually a grant,” Bair said. “And he started well it’s $500 for this amount, $500 more for another amount and $500 more for another amount.”

Bair and his wife also received pictures of people who received their grant checks.

So the couple wired $1,500 to the agent, expecting to receive a $50,000 grant check in return.

The check never came.

“Thought it would be nice to have a little extra money to go back to Pennsylvania and give it to some of my grand kids graduating,” he said. “I was wrong. I gave what I had saved for them and now that’s the end of that.”

Bair doesn’t want others to fall for the same scam.

“I don’t want to see anyone else in Florida have that happen to them,” he said.

Similar scams are growing in popularity, which is why the federal government has a page dedicated to them.

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