They were looking for help in a moment of crisis and say a metro Atlanta woman took advantage of them and took their money.
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Channel 2 Action News Investigates talked to 23 people in seven states who say they paid a DeKalb County woman money to apply for “hardship grants” and never received a dime of the promised money in return.
Mary Hoyle was trying to find a way to pay for her son’s cancer treatments.
“When my son got sick, I started learning a lot of things, were not covered,” Hoyle told Channel 2 Consumer Investigator Justin Gray.
Arlene Ingram couldn’t work after being injured in a serious car accident.
“I was hurting for money. I didn’t have any money coming in except my Social Security. And I needed the help. I was living off my credit cards,” Ingram said.
Natasha Hodge is a DeKalb County tax preparer and business owner who promised help obtaining grants, for a fee.
“It was going to help me care for my son,” Hoyle said.
“I was supposed to get $250,000,” Ingram said.
Channel 2 Action News reviewed dozens of text messages where Hodge told Ingram, Hoyle and others how simple the process would be.
For each fee paid to Hodge through payment apps applicants would allegedly get access to more money. They would also get more grant money for each friend or relative they recommended.
“You were paying a processing fee for her to fill out the grants for you. Because she knew the verbiage to get the grants to come through,” Hoyle said.
But it’s been a year and a half now, “And my son passed away September 22nd, 2024,” Hoyle said.
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There were repeated excuses by phone and text.
“The payouts are still coming”
“It’s moving faster”
“Could be anytime now”
Over time, the excuses turned to threats and insults.
“BBL and hair and clothes is all they want,” Hodge texted.
“I have a team of attorneys it’s only the broke people talking (expletive),” Hodge wrote.
None of the people Channel 2 Action News Investigates contacted ever received a dime.
They paid Hodge more than $10,000 and were promised more than $5.6 million in grants.
“I would have paid off my credit cards. I would help my grandkids,” Ingram said.
“You got these people’s money, you gave these people hope where you had no plan or doing anything to help any of us,” Hoyle said.
Hodge shut the door on Channel 2 Action News when we tried to ask her questions.
A man who identified himself as her manager when we called refused to put her on the phone to answer any questions.
In texts and phone calls, Hodge claimed the grant money would be coming from a group called the Black Coalition Foundation.
There’s no such nonprofit registered as a 501c3 with the IRS.
The email she gave for the organization bounces back.
The URL belongs to a different group entirely, the Baltimore community foundation
Hodge never did answer any of our questions. But she did repeatedly email and call Channel 2 Action News to demand we not include her in any story.
She also is still texting out loan and grant opportunities funded by a “new organization” where she is in “complete charge.”
“I’m hurt. I’m hurt. But my main thing is she’s still doing it,” Ingram said.
A spokesperson for the FBI tells Channel 2 Action News that the FBI is aware of the allegations but does not comment on the existence or non-existence of any investigation.
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