Greg's Corner

Grant money scam returns to social media

By Greg Collier

When we say the government grant scam has returned to social media, it really never left. However, we’ve seen a number of reports about the scam this week. The way the scam typically works is you’ll receive a message on social media from a friend, telling you they received substantial grant money from the government, and you can too. In reality, your friend’s social media account has been hacked and is being used by scammers. In what’s known as the advance fee scam, the scammers will try to get you to pay fictitious taxes or a processing fee to get the phony grant. This can end up costing a victim of this scam thousands of dollars.

For example, a woman in Nebraska recently fell victim to this scam. She had received a message from a relative on Facebook. The message said she could receive $100,000 in grant money. She thought the grant was some form of pandemic financial assistance. She ended up paying $5,000 to the scammers in prepaid debit cards. Not only was she dealt a financial loss, but scammers may have stolen her identity as well. The scammers had asked her for a copy of her driver’s license as part of the phony application process. With that kind of information, identity thieves can open any number of financial accounts in the victim’s name.

The way you can tell this is a scam is that the government doesn’t ask for money when approving an actual grant. And if the government did ask for money, they wouldn’t ask for it in prepaid debit cards or gift cards. If you receive one of these messages on social media, do not respond to it. Instead, use another method of communication to let your friend or relative know that their account may have been compromised. Since this scam often targets elderly victims, you may want to inform any older relatives you might have if they are active on social media.