19-year-old man swindled by website claiming to offer grants for college

A Milwaukee teenager just wanted some cash for college, so he applied for a grant. Even though they told him he got the grant, he's struggling to pay bills. Unfortunately, he learned a hard lesson, and is now asking Contact 6 for help.

19-year-old Rafath Fanou is working overtime at a clothing store just to make ends meet. It started when he went to a website called Grants.com, trying to get some money to go to college. Fanou needed $8,000.

A few days after applying, Rafath got a phone call. He said, "When I got the phone call, it was a lady called 'Kelly Smith' with an Indian accent, which is very weird."

Rafath went against his gut instinct that the call was phoney and agreed to follow the caller's instructions. Rafath says, "She said 'Well, you have to go over there in order to get the grant back, because we just can't release this money without you sending the tax money.' So I was like maybe that might be true."

Blinded by the excitement of possibly getting the grant, Rafath drove to a money transfer business on Brown Deer Rd. and sent two transactions before realizing he made a big mistake. He said, "The first one was $210. The second one was two...no three...$350."

Rafath sent a total of $560 overseas to a person he didn't know. If you're shaking your head in disbelief, stop it. Contact 6 gets daily complaints from viewers who do the same thing.

'Kelly Smith' wasn't interested in talking to us when we contacted her over the phone.

IMPORTANT: Grants.com is only a landing site for people who are interested in obtaining financial assistance for a wide variety of reasons.  The site accepts advertising from various vendors and does not endorse any specific one.