# Matthew Lesko & Free Money???? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 20, 2004, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matthew-lesko-free-money/280716 "2004-12-20T01:26:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![rippingtons\_fan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rippingtons_fan/32/11767_2.png) [@rippingtons\_fan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rippingtons_fan)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matthew-lesko-free-money/280716/1 "2004-12-20T01:26:29Z")
Is Matthew Lesko on the level about this “Free Money”??? There’s got to be a catch somewhere!! ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matthew-lesko-free-money/280716/2 "2004-12-20T01:53:47Z")
This has been discussed here before. Lasko’s book just consolidates stuff you could probably find in the library or on the net if you were so inclined. I’m sure there’s plenty of catches for each offer. ---
**Author:** ![chaoticbear](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/f07891/32.png) [@chaoticbear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chaoticbear)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matthew-lesko-free-money/280716/3 "2004-12-20T02:54:34Z")
To paraphrase another Doper, Matthew Lesko will give you all the secrets in the world to get free money for just 29.95 and your first born. Just kidding about the 29.95. ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 3:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matthew-lesko-free-money/280716/4 "2004-12-20T03:29:18Z")
Free Government Money!! Get Paid To Travel The World!! Get Paid To Masturbate!! ---
**Author:** ![Zsofia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/7bcc69/32.png) [@Zsofia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zsofia)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matthew-lesko-free-money/280716/5 "2004-12-20T03:41:34Z")
Everything Lesko sells you is FREE, FREE, FREE, and actually your right as a taxpayer, at any federal despository library. There are several in any given state - any land grant university, two that Congress picks, federal court libraries, and often a few extra. One may start looking at [gpoaccess.gov](http://gpoaccess.gov). ---
**Author:** ![Mesquite-oh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a183cd/32.png) [@Mesquite-oh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mesquite-oh)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 8:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matthew-lesko-free-money/280716/6 "2004-12-20T08:28:42Z")
> [@astro](#): > > Get Paid To Masturbate!! What?! and risk losing my amateur status? ---
**Author:** ![Khadaji](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9e8a1a/32.png) [@Khadaji](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Khadaji)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matthew-lesko-free-money/280716/7 "2004-12-20T14:05:18Z")
We bought this book when I was at a small company that was looking for grants. Mostly we found that it might be useful if you are a woman or a minority. ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 2:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matthew-lesko-free-money/280716/8 "2004-12-20T14:11:39Z")
> [@rippingtons\_fan](#): > > Is Matthew Lesko on the level about this “Free Money”??? There’s got to be a catch somewhere!! His books are in the bookstore, go take a look. IIRC, one of them has 15,000 programs in a 1,000 page book; i.e., fifteen grant programs per page. You are given tens of thousands of grant programs or agencies; but you are given no instructions on how to get the grants (IIRC). I’d say that they appear to be on the level inasmuch as they offer a long list of grant sources sorted by subject and location. However they are not what they’re sold as, in the sense that one can open the book, call a phone number, and get a check from the federal government. You are still going to have to do the dirty work of getting the grant. ---
**Author:** ![ShibbOleth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/848f3c/32.png) [@ShibbOleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ShibbOleth)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2004, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matthew-lesko-free-money/280716/9 "2004-12-20T14:26:14Z")
I saw one of these in the public library a while back so I picked it up and looked through it. It’s just a compendium of various government, and possibly private, agencies. Not a bad source book, I suppose, since it’s arranged a bit differently than others, but not all that useful, either. Probably worth looking through at a library or bookstore, for free, if you’re bored. ---
**Author:** ![Crandolph](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7cd45c/32.png) [@Crandolph](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crandolph)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2004, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matthew-lesko-free-money/280716/10 "2004-12-22T22:10:54Z")
The fact that these agencies are compiled in one place makes it an enormously valuable book; for the most part the government itself has not compiled that sort of info in one place itself. This is why libraries and congressional offices carry a copy. I bumped into Lesko once in DC; he was really wearing the “???” suit! The funny thing was that I was dating a recent Russian immigrant at the time and had to try to explain to her how I knew who the crazy guy in the Riddler suit was and why I was taking to him about how he helped me get cash from the government… must’ve been completely surreal for her! ---
**Author:** ![Cardinal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cardinal/32/4000_2.png) [@Cardinal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cardinal)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 5:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matthew-lesko-free-money/280716/11 "2004-12-23T05:53:28Z")
Read the Amazon reviews. Pretty scathing mostly. People telling about being called for grants that the caller has no business getting, people having no idea how to start applying for these grants because Lesko doesn’t say… ---
**Author:** ![fluiddruid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/c2a13f/32.png) [@fluiddruid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fluiddruid)\ **Post date:** [December 23, 2004, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matthew-lesko-free-money/280716/12 "2004-12-23T22:56:56Z")
I used to work for one of the government agencies listed and had the job of responding to the people who had sent us letters the way that the book told them. Often they were just photocopied literally from the book and didn’t have personal information except on the envelope. The better applicants would actually retype it but not put in their own words or ideas – they would just replace [AGENCY NAME HERE] for our agency’s name (maybe half the time). A disproportionately huge number of these people were convicts in prison (I’d say about 60%). All, and I mean all, of the people who applied were not eligible. They were applying to a state government establishment from other states, and we only responded to Iowa applicants at all. Besides which, to get grants and loans you have to have snazzy things like nice credit, a good income or amount of savings, and a business plan. These people had none of these things. It was pretty much just “send me info on how to get free money”. Yeah, right. This guy just wastes government time, IMHO. It was a non-trivial part of my job to respond to these people. ---
**Author:** ![js\_africanus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/87869e/32.png) [@js\_africanus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/js_africanus)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2004, 8:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/matthew-lesko-free-money/280716/13 "2004-12-24T20:22:29Z")
> [@Crandolph](#): > > The fact that these agencies are compiled in one place makes it an enormously valuable book; for the most part the government itself has not compiled that sort of info in one place itself. This is why libraries and congressional offices carry a copy. I always suspect that they guy was just some academic who wrote grants and had a million-dollar idea about making and selling a catalogue of grant sources.