Greg's Corner

Government grant scammers trying new trick

The government grant scam is one of the older scams that came along with the advent of social media. How it normally works is you’ll receive a message from someone on your friends list. They’ll tell you about a great opportunity where you can qualify for a government grant and basically receive free money. The message would then direct you to a website where you can apply for the supposed grant.

If you apply for the grant one of two things usually happens. You could have your identity stolen after submitting your personal information when applying for the grant. The other thing that could happen is that the grant issuers will ask you for a processing fee before issuing the grant.

What actually has happened is that your friends social media account has been hacked and scammers are using it to send out these grant messages. The grants don’t actually exist and you could be out personal and financial information along with a chunk of your savings.

Social media platforms have gotten wise to these messages and the scammers know this. Now, these scam messages will try to direct you off of the platform your,e using to try to avoid detection. The message will say something like ‘text me your number if you want to talk about it’. This way the scammers can try to fool you without the social media company seeing the messages.

if you receive one of these messages on social media, do not respond. If it’s from someone you know personally, use another method of communication to contact them to let them know their account has been compromised.

As this scam often targets the elderly you may want to let your older family members aware of this scam before they’re taken advantage of.