A new nationwide fraud is taking place on Facebook and catching many unsuspecting Americans off guard this tax season. The scam, which promises huge sums of money through grants and claims to be a government agency called the IFC Fund is not to be taken lightly.
The savvy criminals behind the IFC Fund, which stands for the “International Finance Corporation” (not to be confused with the actual Government IFC Fund that is headquartered in Washington, D.C.) gives off the impression that they are one in the same and operating as part of a real government agency. Monique Bowens, who is the setup woman for the scam in this instance, stated that the IFC Fund exists “specifically for those who need assistance in paying bills, buying a home, starting their own business, going to school or even helping raise their children with old and retired individuals”. Bowens also claimed that she received $15,000.00 when she first applied for the IFC Grant.
Readers Note: This article provides documented screenshots and videos that were catalogued when a would be victim was contacted and almost swindled out of their hard earned money.
The IFC Scams Operating Procedure
The first phase of the scam begins with Monique Bowens (and associates) contacting random individuals across the country. Through Facebook Messenger they boast about how amazing this new government opportunity is and then inform would be victims to contact the Agent that represents the IFC Fund. This agent is known as Agent Williams Scott. When the individual contacts the fake agent, the user behind that profile then begins phase two…
Phase two has the victim fill out a form that provides the Agent with their Full Name, Phone Number, Home Address, Occupation, Funding Reasons, Monthly Earnings & Email Address. Once the information has been provided the Agent then sends over additional grant details. In this case, the grant details included a Claim, Ticket, Batch & Serial Number. Once that process has been completed Agent Williams Scott then informs the individual that they have verified their information and that they qualify to receive the grant.
The final phase, the theft of your money is then set into action. In order to receive the grant of your choice you are instructed to pay “clearance fee’s”. Depending on the grant amount a clearance fee can vary from $450 all the way to $10,200. If a victim opts for the $10,200 clearance fee they are informed they will receive $750,000.00 from the government.
Where The Money Goes
Two individuals receive payments for the IFC Fund. The first being Kayla Nichole Parker of Greensboro North Carolina (United States, Zip Code: 27403). The other name used in the scheme is Salami Toyosi of Shagamu, Ogun (Nigeria, Zip Code: 23401). Once the payment has been rendered the victim is then instructed to provide the reference number of the payment confirmation to Agent Williams Scott or Monique Bowens.
“You will be arrested in a few hours if you don’t be careful”
In this case, after a few hours of the victim attempting to gather information on these would be scammers, Agent Williams Scott becomes frustrated and claims “You are a scam, get out of here! You will be arrested in a few hours if you don’t be careful”. When the victim asked why she would be arrested the agent replied “Because you are trying to spoil our company name.” At the end of the conversation the agent ends with saying the following: “Now we have the right to make the grant available to someone else since you are not ready for the claim, we hope you have a good day and congratulations on the winning once again even though you didn’t get the grant. Thanks.”
COBRA Says: At one point during the attempted scam, Monique Bowens grows extremely irritated over the money not being sent from the would be victim. She even went as far as to re-assure the victim that “I trust the claim agent even though I just introduced this lady also to the claim agent and she has got her own grant money yesterday.” What a scumbag…
Monique Bowens
Monique Bowens is one of the point men for the scam operation and forwards potential victims to the “Agent” that represents the fake Governments IFC Fund. Documentation below.
Agent Williams Scott
The fake Government Agent goes by the name of “Williams Scott” and attempts to swindle would be victims out of hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars. Documentation below.
In this case the woman, a resident from North Ridgeville, Ohio, fortunately caught on to the scheme. When she was on her way to make payment to Nichole Parker she just knew something wasn’t adding up and decided to turn around… Furthermore, the phone number that she provided the agent was the telephone number to her local police department.
“I thought Wait, how come I have to pay money to get money? that didn’t really make sense To me.” – Victim
The Bottom Line: Anyone who is contacted by this group (or anyone proclaiming to offer money in return for fee’s or clearance payments) is urged to use the Internet Crime Complaint Center aka IC3.
SCUMBAGGED Tip: This has to be one of the worst scams ever devised, sadly, many people who need money are willing to spend money to receive just a little more. If it sounds too good to be true, then it usually is… Don’t allow these people or anyone like them to defraud you.
Yes i was contacted through facebook some one portrayed their self as my nephew hacked his facebook account and had me to believe i was on a list to receive 30,0000USD and had me to send them 850.00 dollars moneygram this IFC grant,, sent 2 checks to my bank account. Dont know how they get that information, i have a fraud investigation going on, the bank cant find the accounts that the checks are from, and the checks dont look real;
I was contacted by a co worker who paid to get her $50k. So I texted the IFC 601-301-6074. Agent Thomas Palmer Scott texted back. asked if I was here for the ongoing IFC grant reply with capital YES, which I did. then proceeded to ask for referrer name. I gave it, said she WON. My co worker sent the required $1500 and did receive a $50k check and, after speaking to me about it being a scam, checked with her bank and all is well on her side. We shall see.
I was recently scammed by these guys. They only got $150 dollars from me by used Google Play cards that I bought. I then learned through further research is that you don’t pay for a Grant. So I cut ties. I disabled my Facebook account and changed my cell number. The agent’s name is Carter Brown; look out for this guy. He will want to be your friend and will want to be inconstant contact with on google hangouts.
Thank you for the good writeup, I was ripped off by these same people on $400 and they promised me $7,500. I should have knew better, but after reading all of the things I’ve read I’m thankful that I didn’t lose more. Hard lesson learned here.
a little concerned because I filled out the form, I figured my name and email address and age and phone were public info anyhow and it would do no harm. I questioned him a lot about verification that he was a legitimate business because their fb profile was new and had zero info on it. I’m an idiot for even playing along but luckily when I kept questioning him and found this article and sent it to him he said “I do not think you are ready” and immediately blocked me. He was doing business as “Life’s hard” lol.
Truss Robin is also contacting individuals on facebook! Get her too! Who would believe the blatant lies? If it doesn’t make sense, IT IS NOT TRUE!!!!!!!!
I just received the same scam and the agents name was RaymondTony7123, be careful.
l cannot beleive my family would go along with this scam artist. my first red flag/text this guy thats how you reach out to them/second red flag children were talking and playing/third red flag the accent was nigerian/fourth red flag ask if i got my stimulis check. only greedy people get scam
p.s call jerk and scam their ass .323-924-4169
I was told by what i thought was a friend Gus Prince, he told me that he got a grant for IFC and to try and see if i could so i filled out the information and within minutes i got a text from Agent John Boham telling me that if i put x amount of dollars in i would get three time the amount back, so along with my son we sent 5,000.00 worth of Walmart gift card 500.00 at a time well needless to say every time the money was to come their was IRS, CIA, and guns being shot at them at the border and if i did not pay another 1000.00 dollars they would send out the money next day well that was April 27, 28 up to May 5 2020, yes i am a fool but i can only pray that this scamming can be put to a stop.
I was contacted by a Marcia Owns yesterday, through a friend of mine, I was on FaceBook when a chat from my longtime friend popped up. I applied for the grant was approved instantly, I had to pay $2,000 to get $200,000. or 10% of grant. They would deliver the money to my home in 24 hours. I was not to discuss this with anyone until after I received my money. I had many red flags but made excuses since my friends had already done this and were thrilled about it. Watch for misspelled words, bad grammar and as my son has always told me “When will you learn that nothing is free?” My d-i-l told me “You do not pay cash for a grant – this is a con”. I chatted with my friend this morning about it and kept getting logical answers from her. I then decided to talk to her on the phone about it. I said I was going to get a cup of coffee and phone her back and asked her to give me her phone number so I did not have to search for it. A number came back and it was not their land phone so I asked if this was a cell phone or their land phone and the answer was land so I knew that was not correct. I was told the agent was a God-fearing good woman and that she wanted the blessings to be mine. Please be aware of this bunch and I have reported them to FaceBook but have no idea if anything will be done about it.
I was contacted through instagram. they used a friends profile to try an get me to send them money to get a grant. The woman they used is extremely well educated an the language they used was not up to her spoken words. so i told them to leave me alone an i was going to report their scam attempt. The name used was Trevor Napoleon for the agent and they used a District of Columbia phone number
The same here. Name was Craig Watts. I realized that Craig watts is a football player and this guy was fake. He hacked into my friends fb acct and pretended to be her trying to convince me she won $150k. Stopped it immediately.
I got a messenger invitation from my cousin living in Ca.USA to apply to ICF (I believe too late to find that his acct.was used).In short I applied.All my querries were immediately replied so I got interested.I filled up an application bearing my identity.My worry now is that they knew something about me.Data were all personal info.No bank acct. info whatsoever.I still thank God for that!Aside from having not much money to disclose.But can they access to my bank savings?It’s not a lot but I hate that I will be a victim of this scam.I am so sorry to fall short of my sense of decision.I need help please.I already blocked them Sheryl Smith (posing as IFC atty.)
I have had several “so called friends” tell me about this “so calle IFC and another one was the National Endowment for the Humanities Financial assistance program. Each stating that they got soooo much money, but couldn’t show me proof of a bank deposit. Wanted me contact a agent, but don’t remember his name. Tried to run the scam on me, but I asked toooo many questions and his last remark to me was “I was not ready to receive the grant”. As stated, why would you have to pay for a grant, when grants are “FREE”!!!!! I suggest all who are recommended by your “so called friends” to investigate and have them show you some proof. One friend told me that he got his money, $50,000.00 cash, delivered to his doorstep in a box. REALLY!!! He could not show me any sound proof that he received it. Nothing else was heard from him or the others that tried to get me into this scam. “Common sense and that funny feeling will take you a long way.”
Yes be aware of IFC I think I just became a victim from NC a good friend claimed she got $50,000 by paying delivery fee to fed-x guy. I saw a lot of red flags only did texts with him but wanted me to buy gift cards for steam wallet to give the guy for $2000 I new that did not make sense, but when I tried to buy them you were limited to buy 4 and said there was a scam going on, please be careful they talk very convincing! I never paid all of it said would not deliver unless I did at first said they would and I could pay balance when I got the money delivered! So I lost!
what to do if you gave them ssa number
They changed names its now William Smith and Dana Wosley
Hacked a friends profile. Contacted me. Made it look like she was sponswring money to help me out because she had the financial luck and wanted to share. They hacked my bank acct. They got $5,000. I lost all the savings and money i worked so hard for!!!
I just got contact by the same IFC program with them saying that their are my grandma but she always tell me to looked anyone up. how low can these people get to use a old lady. I figure it has to be a scam when I feed them false information about her health. Soooooo please remember to always ask a shit tone of question but the agent name for me was David Williams. we might need help but always be careful because ” why pay for money thetas suppose to be free to help out your family”.
This a scam! I was contacted on FB about two weeks ago and I missed some of my FB friends message. It was vague with a “Hi how are you?” I thought it was odd because my friend doesn’t talk that way. I didn’t realize that once I responded with “I missed your message and sending prayers and well being”. I started receiving messages about have I heard about IFC? I didn’t give it a lot of thought thinking my friend was sharing new found information to share about non repayable grants. I thought he was legit because he said he received $50,000 (Remember this is Instagram messages thru FB) I wasn’t thinking correct because I couldn’t believe he was sharing this information. I went to their website and it appears legit. He/she me a phone number to call for their direct claim agent, here’s the number 872-307-6928. This may change now, after exposing them. I started receiving message to send my personnel information to Agent Attorney David Glover in charge of IFC program, then that’s when I questioned why do you need pictures of my valid ID? They agreed that they don’t make calls because of increase volume of request and you should trust the person who referred you and sent you here to apply for this program Wow! That was the kicker! I had to really think and say is this really my friend on FB? Let me tell you, I researched my FB friend and noticed that his profile name was slightly different? I contacted my friend to his true FB account (Which I researched in my FB friends account) And I sent an discreet inbox message, requesting him to contact me, and sure enough he did. I explained everything and he told me that this isn’t the first time happening, it’s happen with his friends, family and all other contacts. He wasn’t aware of this and he was apologetic, but it’s not not is fault. I DID NOT complete the form with my information on their page nor their text and I blocked the Instagram message as well as the phone number on my phone (Which is requesting your information). Please know this is a SCAM!
I too fell victim to this scam. The Facebook person is Jammie Rommie. The IFC agent Robert Kelvin. I reported it to the police in Oklahoma where supposedly Jammie Rommie lives.
I believe someone has hacked my Nephew account I received a message from him about idc grant he said he got 50,000 delivered to him and for me to reach out to Michelle Barlow to help me complete an application. Sounds to good to be true.
Was also convinced, that I could receive 50.000 and pay 1500,fell for it hook line and sinker,they hacked my cousin Facebook ,messanger, his na me is agent attorney Edward deslauriers no money but personal information given my mistake