“You’ve Won a Government Grant”

We’ve written about this before, but it always seems to come around again.  In fact, just yesterday, your BBB® received at least 3 phone calls from consumers who’ve been offered a grant usually amounting to thousands of dollars either for banking information, an advanced fee or both.  In return, the “grant” will be either directly deposited into their account or sent to them via mail or wire transfer.

Often these fraudsters will use generic names that sound official, like “Loyalty Grant,” or use the names of government agencies, like Health & Human Services. Yesterday, one of the names used was the National Endowment for the Humanities.  According to their website, “The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) is an independent federal agency that is one of the largest funders of humanities programs in the U.S.”  They do provide grants to cultural institutions as well as individuals; however, in order to obtain a grant from the agency, you must first apply for it and be chosen to receive it.

In this particular consumer’s case, they received a call purporting to be from NEH. The consumer had allegedly been awarded a $40,000 grant, but in order to receive it, the consumer had to pay a fee of $600.

If it isn’t obvious already, there is no $40,000 grant, and sending them the $600 will only result in the loss of your money and possibly your identity.

Click here for a few of tips to help prevent you from losing money to a government grant scam: