It's an alleged scam that targets small business owners for tens of thousands of dollars.

There's a larger message about who you should and shouldn't do business with.

Patricia Gates is a small business owner. Trying to grow her landscaping company. More than a year ago, she got this phone call.

The pitch was, we're grant writers and there's money to be had," explained Gates.

It was money from charitable foundations, money a company called "The Grant People" could help her get, for a price.

They convinced Patricia that she'd have good chance as a female small business owner.

So she sent away her first check for $3,250.

A few weeks later, The Grant People wanted more money to create a non-profit organization.

In return, Patricia got this stack of papers.

Months passed, and then word, Patricia had won a huge grant, and needed to pay more money for *processing.*

Gates said after the check cleared, "They said, you never should have gotten that phone call. That really didn't happen."

In all, Patricia paid nearly $21,000 to The Grant People.

"I'm embarrassed. I've been scammed," said Gates.

The Grant People claimed to have sent grant request letters to these seven foundations.

We found more than half of those letters either had bogus addresses or went to foundations that don't give grants to people like Patricia.

We wanted to ask The Grant People to explain, but all eleven phone numbers that we had been disconnected, and both websites were suspended. And, their location in Las Vegas is empty.

Patricia isn't the only victim.

The Nevada Consumer Affairs Division has had 76 complaints, while the Better Business Bureau had 126 complaints in the last 36 months.

Patricia realizes now that the money is gone, and growing her business is impossible.

Her retirement is now many seasons away.

The big point here to avoid the possibility of being scammed is do not do business with companies that call you. You should always be the one to initiate any business transaction