City Investigates Company Offering Stimulus Checks for Personal Info - Chicago News and Weather | FOX 32 News

City Investigates Company Offering Stimulus Checks for Personal Info

Chicago police and the city's consumer protection unit are investigating a deal that sounds too good to be true: hundreds of dollars in federal stimulus money if you just sign a form.

Hundreds of people swarmed a Southwest Side strip mall Thursday after getting fliers saying they could be eligible for federal stimulus money.

The company, Tax Professional Consulting Agency, asked for birth dates, social security numbers and bank accounts to send the free cash.

That company is renting space from another business, which told FOX Chicago it has nothing to do with the other business.

A staffer for Alderman Sharon Dixon went to investigate.

The office abruptly closed and workers left through the back door.

’I didn't give them my bank account...because I was skeptical. I'm sorry, that's why I didn't give it to them because so many people were. I don't give nobody my bank account number,’ Roby Jenkins said.

’I think it was a scam because when I called the numbers, they have all these numbers, they're shut down. They're not working,’ Ethel Wimbley said.

FOX Chicago talked with one of the owners of business behind the fliers, who told us it was an effort to help people collect their unclaimed stimulus checks.

He said they closed the business because crowds were becoming unruly.

The city's Business Affairs and Consumer Protection Agency is investigating.