Greg's Corner

Gas relief scam sweeps nation

By Greg Collier

Recently, we’ve been discussing how scammers will take any tragedy in the headlines and try to use it to their advantage. That’s not just limited to disasters and other tragedies. Scammers can also take advantage of ongoing crises. For example, there seemed to be no end to the number of scams related to the pandemic in the past few years. Now, scammers have turned their greedy eyes to the gas crisis. With the price of gas skyrocketing because of inflation, scammers are looking to take advantage of consumers who are desperate for an economic break.

In one scam, scammers are calling consumers telling them that the government is offering a gas relief program for qualifying individuals. However, what the scammers are really after is your financial information. One victim from Oklahoma said she signed up for the phony program and lost a lot of money out of her checking account to the scammers.

A spokesperson for the Federal Trade Commission has stated that the government is not offering any gas relief program.

If this scam sounds a little familiar, that’s because it sounds a lot like the government grant scam. In that scam, victims receive an unsolicited call or message telling them they qualify for a government grant that the victim can use for any purpose. It’s often pitched to the victim as a way they can pay their bills. The scammers tell their victims they just need to pay a processing fee in order to receive the grant. Once the victim pays, the scammers disappear with the money, while the grant never existed in the first place. This is also known as an advance fee scam.

These approaches are not just limited to phone calls. They can appear in almost any form of communication, whether it’s calls, texts, direct messages, or emails. If there was such a government program for gas relief, the government wouldn’t be calling you. You would have to reach out to them first.

While we could all use some relief at the pump, almost any offer to discount gas prices will probably be a scam.