Taking too long? Close loading screen.
FEDERAL FINANCIAL RELIEF Adrian Adams
Is Matthew Lesko legit? Here’s what the experts have to say—and the answer might shock you.
November 30th
If you happen to watch enough TV or frequent social media sites on a regular basis, then you must have stumbled upon Matthew Lesko or more specifically the infamous Matthew Lesko free money pdf. It’s a guide that supposedly discusses and analyzes the many different ways that one can apply for and successful secure government funds. This ranges from a collection of over 3000 state, federal and government grants that according to Matthew Lesko pdf, the mainstream authorities and powers-that-be do not want you to know. Strange, right?
You must have seen him on TV – his legendary green question mark suit is a trademark for his repetitive and almost annoying infomercials on Fox, especially after 10 at night. Lesko, like most salesmen, is now synonymous with his habitual squealing of stuff like, “Get funds from the state or government and pay your fees for FREE” or “here’s FREE money for your rent!”
All other factors held constant, Matthew Lesko claims to have the answers to the questions that you may have regarding how to secure state funding, whatever the situation you need that money for. He developed and polished his understanding of state funding programs that most citizens aren’t familiar with after spending years working closely with several corporations to help them secure state grants.
It’s while doing this that Lesko realized that the average Joe often did not know where to look or turn to if they needed some form of a legitimate bailout from the state. In other words, he dedicated a lot of time and resources in translating government bureaucratic lingo to a simpler language that the common man can understand easily. This is actually where the question mark suit hails from – you are expected to ask Lesko for free money tips to bail you out of your current fix.
But first things, first.
Matthew Lesko was born around 1943 and reportedly resides in Washington, D.C. He has two sons and is said to have been married thrice. He has an MBA – which he earned after serving extensively in the Navy – right after earning his undergraduate degree. It was after college that Lesko discovered his penchant for infomercials thanks to larger-than-life appeal, charisma, bravado and confidence. And this is not surprising considering that he spends north of $3 million per year on sales pitches and advertising. This is without a doubt a hefty price to pay regardless of the amount of money accrued from these pitches, although we are not sure of Matthew Lesko net worth or how he manages to fund a venture of such magnitude.
According to a recent Matthew Lesko 2016 review, he presents addresses, names, phone numbers and detailed descriptions of private agency grants and cash assistance programs that are available to the common man. It is for this reason that many would argue that Lesko Matthew is not essentially scamming people (in the common and street definition of the word) but simply overselling and overvaluing his books.
But before passing any quick judgment here, let’s first lay out the facts.
It is very important to underline that much of the information that the question mark suit guy tries to sell to you is publicly available to anyone willing to spend more than a few couple of minutes digging around. It is no secret that government grants and other charity assistance programs have been around for ages. You only need to spare some time to scour around the interwebs to discover that there’s a wealth of such information online, including entire dedicated forums where people document their pursuits of ‘free money grants’ from the federal and state government.
That being said, we all know that not everyone has the time, resources and the temerity to spend hours online hunting down promising government grants or open cash assistance programs. And this is where the Lesko free money book comes into play. He has done the legwork for you by gathering all this invaluable information and putting it under one convenient cover. Therefore, you don’t have to spend endless hours looking for these openings and government grants near you.
Speaking of which, this is something that other Lesko.com reviews fail to point out. Whereas the information available in his books is publicly available, not everybody has the motivation or knowhow to go looking for it every nook and cranny of the internet. Matthew makes it easy for folks that would otherwise get stuck wondering where to look and how to make successful applications. Hence, on the basis of this (and only this) alone, this does not make Lesko a scam artist.
If you are an everyday American who goes about their everyday business and day-to-day life as dictated by the laws of the land, then you won’t find much help from this book. In case you didn’t know, federal or state grants are rarely (if ever ) awarded directly to private citizens. They are often reserved for educational, vocational and lending institutions or government-run charities. This is a measure that was introduced a while back as a way of making it harder for government officials to embezzle tax payers coffers by channeling funds to the private accounts of citizens in the name of grants.
This is something that the free money from the government guy conveniently fails to tell you right from the go. There’s simply no scenario where the government would start dishing out grants directly to individuals without some form of interface or go-between establishment specifically to curb fraud and embezzlement of public funds. It goes without saying that accountability is the crux of public service and this does not change simply because we are talking about charitable causes.
Still on this, it is worth noting that a whopping 95% of the Matthew Lesko government grants outlined in the book are reserved for entities such as Medicaid and Medicare which as you all know have quite a rigorous application process meant to shut out cheats. However, these same measures are structured in such a way that the average citizen is also weeded out of the pool of people who are eligible for the grants.
Here is where it gets a little tricky for Lesko. Recently, the New York Consumer Regulatory Board has come out to publicly declare that the author of Andrew Lesko free money has told them that there is no such thing as free money from the government for private citizens to pay their own bills. This statement was issued after Lesko made a preposterous and unfounded claim that the government was hiding over $350 billion in offshore accounts that could be better used in helping people pay off their debts.
As expected, coming from someone of the reputation, reach and clout of Matt Lesko, the New York state had to come out swiftly and rubbish these claims before they gained any hold in the general population. Lesko was even summoned to record a statement over these unsubstantiated remarks which he did by formally telling the authorities that he was not aware of any free money available for paying bills on behalf of the average citizen.
Now, the mere fact that things had to escalate to this point for the authorities to intervene raises serious doubts about the credibility of the question mark suit man that is now synonymous with late night shows.
One of the most surprising things that most people don’t know about Lesko com is that the BBB received over 90 formal complaints about him between 2014 and 2019. This ranges from anything between reports of misleading advertising to barrage their would-be clientele’s email with a gazillion of spam emails. Following these numerous complaints, the BBB went ahead and issued a stern warning to all prospective consumers over sales pitches posted on Lesko.com.
Essentially, in other words they were telling you that you should take every piece of info that Matthew puts in his books with a pinch of salt. The BBB is a branch of consumer fraud reporting and is tasked with the mandate of protecting unsuspecting clients from the guiles of cunning and clever salespeople such as Matthew Lesko.
You have probably heard about or even been unfortunate enough to experience this by now. You sign up for a free book, webinar or even to a dedicated mailing list only for you to start being bombarded by a ton of spam email from right, left and center! And the most shocking thing is that a good chunk of this junk is barely related to what you signed up for in the first place. Welcome to the age of data mining where unscrupulous webmasters have no problem making a quick buck by selling your crucial private data to 3rd party entities. And, as you might have guessed already, the question mark money man is not any different.
Matt Lesko’s infamous reputation of trading sensitive and privileged clientele information goes back more than a decade. In July 2003, for instance, a formal complaint was filed against an Oregon-based firm by the name Grant Search Inc. for illegally acquiring sensitive contact details from the Lesko money club. This is the same enterprise that is associated with handling Matthew Lesko’s customer mailing list.
It doesn’t end there. In the same year, the FTC ( Federal Trade Commission ) had to settle charges filed against another firm by the name Grant PAC. Now, just like Grant Search above, it had also unlawfully purchased a mailing list from a third party broker going by the name Nextmark. Nextmark had in turn gotten a decent chunk of these contact details from the Lesko money mailing list which gullible subscribers had signed up for.
Further, going by the information posted on Nextmark’s official website, the Federal Trade Commission ( FTC ) arrived to the conclusion that the defendants in the lawsuit had operated a grant-matching enterprise where they falsely claimed that subscribers to their mailing lists could easily obtain access to grants from a wide range of charitable organizations for just about any reason. This sounds like a trick right from Lesko government grants infamous playbook.
To add salt to injury, Lesko has never been apologetic or shied away from admitting that he indeed turns in his subscriber’s mailing list for profit. In fact, in a recent interview with MSNBC, Matthew Lesko categorically said that it was ‘standard business practice’ for them to rent or sell customer’s mailing lists to other 3rd party entities.
In case you don’t know, the repercussions of having your contact details rented or sold to other parties can have far-reaching consequences; beyond just receiving annoying spam email and unsolicited sales pitches. In a day and age where stolen identities are increasingly being used to perpetrate some of the most heinous crimes on the internet, it pays a great deal to be wary of anyone who would hand over your contact details to another person, especially for profit. It’s something worth having at the back of your mind as you purchase Lesko books.
Unlike in the brick and mortar world, refunds are now synonymous with the advent of online shopping. It’s a failsafe meant to protect consumers from online dealers with a penchant of misrepresenting their goodies. However, not all online entrepreneurs have the integrity and ethical compass of issuing money backs and refunds to any customer who may have purchased their services or goods only to be disappointed by the delivered order. Mathew lasko is one of them, unfortunately.
One may argue that refunds are increasingly hard to get, understandably so. But if a large swath of your buyers routinely complain about the difficulty of obtaining refunds from your enterprise, then there’s a big problem with your business model. Anecdotal evidence gathered from a wide collection of web forums show that the only way one can pry a refund from the money-grabbing clutches of the Mathew Lesko free money scheme is if the BBB ( Better Business Bureau ) gets involved.
This is a rather unfortunate scenario considering that most people who sign up for such products peddled by the ilk of Matthew Lesko are already in a dire financial need. Only a heartless person would go to the lengths that Lesko goes to deny such people that have genuinely purchased his products a deserved refund should they be discontented by the order made.
So pervasive is this culture that the BBB recently cleared the air by issuing a statement that they were experiencing multiple hurdles in processing refund claims filed against Mathew Lesko books. They also outlined the major reasons for these refunds and among them was content delivery inconsistencies and, in some cases, complaints touching on the overall quality of the product. It was also noted that Lesko only caves to these refund claims if BBB is involved.
That aside, although the man with question mark suit guarantees instant refunds for purchases made within 90 days, there is no shortage of customers who have reported that the telephone number posted on his site only leads to a dead-end recording loop with nobody to address these refund concerns. What’s more, emails are also sent back to the sender and no-one is available to respond to any requests touching on the refund or money back guarantee. So, essentially, this just means that they are deliberately ignoring and avoiding addressing the elephant in the room, which in this case is the refund guarantee.
One of the problems with Matthew Lesko’s approach in the grand scheme of things is that he grossly advocates that we should abandon the long-held values of hard work, ambition and aspiration. In other words, according to the question mark jacket guy, we should all be welfare kings and queens who sit around waiting for handouts from the government and when that fails to suffice we should strive to rip off the government.
One of the main principles that Leskos playbook is built upon is the claim that the government has a budget of over $750 billion set aside specifically for business grants for small and medium enterprises that is dispensed out each year. Now, Matthew’s business proposition is to help you get a slice of these ‘free’ grants in exchange for a few coins.
We realize that there are a few issues with this unfounded premise that he advocates. For starters, there is nothing such as ‘Free’ money from the government. In fact, coming from www.Lesko.com, it is safe to say that this is a rather ignorant choice of words designed to lure unsuspecting people who are looking for shortcuts. Of course, the money is not anywhere close to being free. Take a look, for example, at your paycheck stub and see who actually pays for and funds these free grants or handouts. Answer? It is you and me.
The Matthew Lesko scam is essentially facilitating the movement of this money from your contributory pocket straight to the pocket of others, with the aid of the government. This does not ideally sound like what a tax-paying and law-abiding citizen would prescribe, commend or champion.
Secondly, the website goes ahead and offers an updated and new 770-plus eBook that is described as, ‘Ask Lesko! Let’s show you how to get a piece of the billions upon billions of dollars which are handed out each year by the federal and state government.” In other more direct words, this can be loosely translated to, ‘Give us $30 and in exchange we will teach you how to siphon from the hard work of others.’
Apparently, this is how low we have stooped as a society. We have become so jaded and conditioned to government waste that we are now openly inventing new ways to exploit it. And not just that. We are now willing to reward somebody who is marketing channels that we can use to get in on the pilferage, celebrate him and also marvel at his ingenuity and resourcefulness.
Even if Matt Lesko is trying to help the average everyday citizen on the best ways to milk the government for money that it otherwise intended to help the truly needy, he does a very shoddy job of it. The truth of the matter that most people don’t want to hear is that the government is not in the business of helping people settle their private bills. Matthew Lesko government grants commercials grossly exaggerate and distort the application and intent of federal programs and make it seem as if he has the monopoly of secret knowledge. He makes it sound as if he somehow knows of some special programs that are dishing out money to just anyone who asks for it.
There are countless complaints, formal reports and statements of dissatisfaction online from folks who have felt duped and swindled by Lesko sponsored ads. Most people have no problem admitting that they feel that Matthew deliberately misinforms and misleads the readers of his so-called government grants books.
One of the two biggest issues that people have with Matthew Lesko is that he makes it seem that it is incredibly easy and straightforward to secure money and grants from the government. This is simply not true. There’s a mammoth of bureaucratic hoops and hurdles that you will have to jump through for your application to be even considered as eligible. It is not something that you decide to just wake up one morning, make a request and the government promptly delivers it by the sunset. It does not work that way.
Secondly, Lesko conveniently fails to paint the true picture of his little government money club. A good example is how he does not include a disclaimer that most people will never be considered eligible for any of the listed grants or cash assistance programs. Speaking of which, a vast majority of the grants that Lesko refers to in his books are actually community assistance programs designated for charities and non-profit organizations. Most, if not all, people who are buying his books don’t run charities or community-based enterprises.
Clark, unlike other reviewers, does not hide his contempt for Matt Lesko. And recently, when he was asked about what he thinks of his books he had this to say.
“I know that by now you have seen the crazy and deranged guy on TV commercials with a question mark suit who jumps up and down hysterically with the White House in the backdrop. This is a man who claims that he knows of a secret way that ordinary Joes like you and I can get COMPLETELY FREE MONEY from the state! But to get this ‘free cash’ all you have to do is buy his comical little book. Ladies and gentlemen, he goes by the name Matthew Lesko and I am here to tell you today that his gimmicky pitch is just NOT TRUE”
Further, Howard who is a respected figure in the consumer review world, adds that, “Clark has always maintained that his sales pitches are far from the truth and now respected government agencies agree!”
Clark even spent a significant chunk of his airtime on his popular radio show to debunk some of the myths and misconceptions associated with Lesko’s grants. Notably, he pointed out that much of the information detailed in this book only relates to community and state agencies. And since you can only be a residence of one state at a time, then simple mathematics shows that only a paltry 4% of the manual will apply to you.
Therefore, to most people, over 96% of the remaining part of the Matthew Lesko Book, will be essentially useless to you. And this is even under the best of possible circumstances. Here’s where it gets interesting: Of the useful 4% of the book that could apply to you, a good chunk of that will be programs that you barely qualify for.
According to Washington City Paper, Lesko has perfected the art of painting a picture that getting government grants is a straightforward affair and that he knows of ‘special programs’ that you don’t know about already. Both of these pointers which he uses to sell his books are largely untrue. Many of the programs listed are very well-known and he also acknowledges that you will not qualify.
Lesko, like a salesperson of his caliber, acknowledges that his marketing shtick hides the gargantuan task of how hectic it can be to secure government grants and he doesn’t see any need or moral responsibility to apologize for it. As a matter of fact, he introduces his latest book edition Free Money to Pay Your Bills as having been peppered with ‘ a certain degree of white lies that seem to be the acceptable norm in most forms of communication nowadays’.
Although Lesko later recanted this statement with another one, ‘It is not really lying but more of not just brazenly presenting the epic downside of a bad situation’, it is not very hard to see through his deceitfulness.
As expected from someone who makes a living shoving sales pitches down the throats of unsuspecting consumers, there are other numerous problems with Lesko’s pdfs.
For starters, the New York Times recently criticized Matthew for making an outlandish statement that he was once a respected and celebrated columnist for the daily. Now, while this may seem an unusual claim, it shows just how much Lesko is willing to go to garner some type of street credibility on which he can base his annoying advertisements.
Speaking of advertisements, most people would easily agree that they are obnoxious at best and repetitive or monotonous at the worst. And it is only lately that he seemed to have gotten wind of this and changed tact guilefully. Before this, Lesko was synonymous with the question mark man who usually ran up and down shouting at the top like a crazy maniac while screaming that he was tired of being chased and hunted down by government agents.
His most recent commercial now has him speaking in a toned down and hushed tone, albeit still bears his annoying intonation. This is probably a strategic response to the numerous backlash that he has been receiving online against his characteristic screaming. However, as much as he does not address the fundamental question that has been raised severally regarding the quality of his educational products, he still maintains steadfastly that he has an impressive zero customer discontent rating and aims to keep this up.”
Despite these promises or vows that he gives refunds in a timely fashion, there are numerous and countless blogs, forums and networks online teeming with people who have supposedly purchased his Lesko grants books only to find out that it is a useless collection of freely available information.
Contrary to what the free government money guy purports in his many books, there are no government grants that are available for private citizens who are looking to start, further or expand their businesses. If this were the case, then conventional commercial banks and credit facilities would quickly go out of business since the government boasts of deeper pockets and better networks. In fact, the United States is categorically clear with this subject. Unfortunately, however, most people and grant seekers continue to look for loopholes which they can exploit to be able to secure funding from the government.
The self-proclaimed Matthew Lesko free money expert and few other make-believe online sites have built an entire empire on what was once just a laughable myth in the grant-dispensing society. Lesko took what was supposed to be an outlandish claim that the government can help you pay your rent and repackaged it to be a bastion of hope that he sells to millions of gullible people in America.
The fact that Matthew is a renowned infomercial figure that has graced our television screens for the past couple of decades has largely contributed to how easily he is able to convince people. He then bolsters this persona by weaving together a mosaic of dozens of websites such as Lesko.com where the only thing he talks about is how you can get free money from the government as you sit at the comfort of your home.
To promote his concoction of lies and unfounded propaganda, Matthew Lesko is smart enough to make up fairy tales and stories on how business moguls like the caliber of Donald Trump and the late billionaire Steve Jobs have successfully gotten from the state after begging. Aside from his suave demeanor, Lesko’s cunning and sly profile has earned him a hardly legendary spot in the infamous Bernard Goldberg’s list of “100 people who are screwing up America” for his uncanny ability to convince people to believe his made-up lies and half-truths revolving around grant rules.
Aside from this, Lesko has somehow managed to convince his following that the United States government plans on investing at least $3.22 billion dollars annually in the near future. Again, according to Lesko’s unfounded sources, this cash will be channeled towards funding grants to support both profit and non-profit private ventures. Of course, there is no iota of truth in these claims. They are simply meant to lure unsuspecting buyers to purchase his books with the hope that they will one day be lucky enough to be awarded business grants or forwarded free money to pay their bills.
Additionally, just because you are eligible to apply for some of the many grants that Matthew lists in his book, this does not necessarily imply that you are guaranteed to qualify for the award of the funds. If you are familiar with government tendering systems and their bureaucratic accompaniments, then you must also know that there are several other things that influence the results of qualification aside from the initial eligibility. Unfortunately, however, this is the money question mark that Lesko leaves out of his infomercials.
Of course, this does not necessarily mean that it is entirely impossible for you to get funds from the state in one way or another using his books, it’s just that the infomercials and advertisements that Lesko puts forth is just a stretch of an unlikely occurrence. The statistical probability is simply not within the range that Lesko promises.
Let’s put it this way. Although a majority of people will obviously not qualify for these grants, one might argue that it could still be worth a shot for someone who is in dire need of financial assistance, right? Here’s where the math does not add up. The premise of all 150 million Americans applying for these grants (as Lesko advocates) is just unsettling, naive and impractical.
The state also knows that cash that is dispensed in such a haphazard fashion is particularly hard for one to keep track of or even ascertain that it is being utilized for the right reasons. In most of the cases, the family or person that requires this kind of free handouts from the state is most probably already getting government financial help in some other fashion. Nevertheless, the onset of the coronavirus pandemic has put a majority of us in a tough spot financially and the future looks even bleaker.
If you do a little online resource you’re bound to find out that there exist a number of legitimate channels that one could pursue and land government help successfully. For example, the US government has numerous programs geared towards the overall safety and health of the whole family even for those who find themselves in a low-income situation. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance (SNAP) and Medicaid are excellent instances of how committed the government is cushioning its citizenry from unexpected financial downturns. Basically, this is FREE aid that the state extends to its less fortunate citizens without expecting them to pay it back later.
However, this should never be misconstrued as grants or government rebates that can be exploited to turn in a profit as Matthew Lesko insists in his book. These are funds that are set aside for the most vulnerable among us and not a ‘get out of debt card’ that one can swipe whenever they make ill-advised financial choices. And, speaking of credit card debt, the federal government certainly does not have over $350 billion stashed away overseas as ‘hidden money’ to fix your awful credit.
Hey everyone I'm Adrian. I'm obsessed with finding programs and loopholes for getting people the financial help they deserve. There are billions of dollars available to help people just like you. See if you're eligible today!
Introducing Federal Financial CreditRestore +
Poor credit costs you big. Higher car payments, more credit card interest, you name it. Get your credit fixed NOW with the official Federal Financial CreditRestore + program and get your financial life back on-track.
Sign up today and take full advantage—initial consultation is totally FREE.
Take Advantage
Questions? Get in touch
Recent Comments