Posted on 09/17/2002 8:31:13 PM PDT by GailA
BBB: Grant Scam In Midtown May Be Slush Fund For Middle East
Updated 4:21 PM, Tuesday, September 17
By Andy Wise
MIDTOWN MEMPHIS -- Pass the filthy walkways, the broken windows and there it is -- a locked door with a greasy doorknob. You knock -- no one answers. You call -- no one answers. But the maintenance man of the Midtown Apartments at 1434 Jefferson Avenue says behind the door of "Apartment #1" is expensive computer equipment. The Mid-South Better Business Bureau says the equipment is being used in an elaborate cash grant scheme that's stealing customers' cash and identities and sending them overseas.
The bureau says the apartment was the base of operations for Nourah Nashaat, a woman with family ties to Pakistan. She and a partner, Hadeya Abbas, ran a website catering to fellow Muslims, offering cash grants for everything from scholarships to child care to jail bonds. Word of the offer spread across the country, and customers -- mostly Muslims -- logged onto the site, paid a $10 application fee with their credit card numbers, turned over their Social Security numbers and were instantly "approved" for some sort of a cash grant.
But there were no grants -- ever.
Sheila Crum of the BBB says there is no evidence a single person who applied on the website received any money. In fact, the BBB has more than 500 complaints and inquiries on file from people who say between April and August, they paid their fee and handed over their personal information, only to get nothing. Crum says it's a huge identity theft scam, and she's worried that Nashaat may be funneling the stolen money and identities to terrorists.
"We know that money was going out of the country," says Crum. "But the personal information -- the biggest concern was that it could be taken elsewhere, and it could be used to bring people into our country."
The Nashaat grant website has been shut down. The On Your Side Investigators have not established yet whether Nourah Nashaat is still in Memphis or in the United States or what her citizenship status is. But according to a Midtown Apartments lease, the lessee of "Apartment #1" is Assad Hussain. An office manager of the apartment complex says Hussain is the boyfriend of Nourah Nashaat. News Channel 3 has left two phone messages with Hussain. Neither have been returned.
Angry victims of the Nashaat grant scam have opened message boards on the Internet to share their experiences. Most of them use words like "hoodwinked"and "victimized" to describe their experiences with Nashaat. Many of them mention Nashaat's grant coordinator by name -- Hadeya Abbas. The name rings a bell with Dr. Nabil Shakaly, a cleric with the Majid Alnoor mosque at 3529 Mynders Avenue.
"Hadeya, I think she was from Somalia," says Shakaly. "I'm not sure if she's still around. I haven't seen her for years."
News Channel 3 can't find her or any representative of the Nashaat grant program. We will continue to hunt them down, and we have alerted the FBI in the hope it will launch its own investigation.
The Nashaat grant program is an identity theft scheme, plain and simple. Never give your Social Security number out over the phone or the Internet. If you're shopping on the web, shop secure websites. They will have "https:" in the web address on the page where you type in your credit or debit card number. Always check any business or charity with the Better Business Bureau. You can check them online at www.midsouth.bbb.org, or check the backgrounds of shopping sites at www.bbbonline.org.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.