Have you been offered a grant for a fee? It’s a total scam!

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Summary:
A grant scam is a promise that you have been awarded a grant worth thousands of dollars and that to receive the money you must make a small upfront payment to cover everything from processing costs to shipping costs or other various and assorted fees. After you have paid the upfront fee you never see the grant money.

Please note: If grant scammers are in possession of your personal information, identity theft may occur. How do scams lead to identity theft?

Jump to:
How does the grant scam work?
Methods of payment requested
The phishing component
Impersonating government employees
Signs of a grant scam
Grant scam using Facebook
What to do if a grant scammer contacts you
Grant scam blacklist

How does the grant scam work?

Grant scams have been around a while and they initially showed up in the 1980s in the form of classified ads. They’ve made some appearances in TV commercials and in the past occurred frequently via phone, but it was the advent of the Internet and smartphones where grant scams like many other scams have hit their stride.

The scam typically starts with a congratulatory message, either verbally or in writing.

They also tend to offer a reason for why you have received the grant. Here’s a common approach taken from the scam complaint archives of the Federal Trade Commission.

“Because you pay your income taxes on time, you have been awarded a free $12,500 government grant! To get your grant, simply give us your checking account information, and we will direct-deposit the grant into your bank account!”

In this instance, the scammer appears to be only interested in a checking account number. But this is just the beginning of the scam. In most cases, there is also a request for an upfront payment. The payment always seems small relative to the amount of the grant and according to investigators from the FBI and the FTC, that’s what empowers the scam. It seems to cost so little relative to how much it’s worth. According to the FTC, here are some of the reasons that scammers offer for this upfront fee:

• Processing fees
• Shipping (Usually identified as next day delivery)
• IRS fees
• Taxes
• Insurance fees
• Security fees
• IRS Swift Code Activation (No such thing)

The amount scammers ask for with these upfront fees vary. What’s common is that upfront payments are often not requested in round numbers. $249 has emerged as a consistent request in an audit of reported grant scams as opposed to a rounded number like $250.

Other amounts are reported to start as low as $49 but people are usually urged to trade up to amounts like $99, $249, $499 and higher to get faster processing, expedited shipment or more grant money. This type of pricing is a standard retail pricing strategy and scammers leverage that familiarity to make the scam seem legitimate.

Our investigations into Common Scams of 2023

Grant scammers have also been known to connect the fee to the grant amount; the more you agree to pay upfront, the larger the grant.

This is often presented to the mark or scam victim after the scammer has won their confidence and has received sincere interest if not an actual payment in a small amount. Once a victim buys into the idea that they can actually get this money they often fall for the kind of sliding scale indicated above.

The initial grant amount promised from a scammer averages $9,000. That amount has shown up time and time again in grant scam complaints. The range for the grants is usually $9,000 to $100,000 but as the above graphic shows, scammers have no hesitation promising more if they think they can get more.

Methods of payment requested

Gift cards

The request for any payment from most grant scammers if for either an iTunes gift card or an Amazon gift card. Both cards are untraceable and are commonly used as a form of currency in the criminal community. Neither offers a refund for cash so scammers who don’t barter them to other scammers are either using them to purchase anything you can purchase on Amazon (which is most anything), or for electronic software through iTunes.

Cryptocurrency

Another payment request is through Bitcoin. As a virtual currency, it is also untraceable. The biggest barrier for a scammer is that most people don’t know what Bitcoin is or don’t know how to do a Bitcoin transaction. Any scammer will be happy to help you figure that out but because it takes time they will often default to the easier and more common gift cards.

The phishing component

It should come as no surprise that scammers are greedy and in addition to scamming people out of money they also are mining for personal and financial information. Because they present the grant award as a serious and significant financial event, they will often ask for detailed information including the following:

• Your name (They may not know it)
• Address
• Phone number
• Birthdate
• Social Security number
• Bank account numbers
• Driver’s license number
• Place of employment

Our investigations into Common Scams of 2023

If they really have someone hooked on the grant scam, they’ll mine additional information including:

• Marital status
• Military status
• Income
• Net worth
• Home value

It may seem absurd that someone would volunteer that level of information to a stranger but as the scam progresses the scammer is not perceived as a stranger anymore. They have successfully built some level of relationship with the victim and are essentially demonstrating the benefits of the “confidence game.” If you’re familiar with the term “conman” that’s where the “con” comes from. A scammer is trying to reassure the victim that they are legitimate and working in their best interests to gain their confidence.

The personal and financial information is a goldmine for the scammer, and they can use it to either steal someone’s identity, attempt to drain their bank accounts or sell the information to other scammers.

Grant scammers are known to impersonate government employees

Another tactic used by Grant scammers to gain your confidence is to pose as a representative or agent from what sounds like a credible government department, agency or branch. Here are some examples from the FBI scam files:

• Government Grant Center
• Consumer Grants USA
• Federal Grants Administration (FGA)
• Government Grant USA
• Federal Government Information Center (FGIC)
• Federal Government Grant Information Center
• National Grant Center (NGC)
• Federal Research Funding Agency
• Department of Revenue

Grant scammers have also claimed to be associated with fake foundations and companies such as:

• Ultimate Funding Inc.
• Customer Care Plus
• Bill Gates Assistance Program
• The Grant Foundation

In some instances, grant scammers have gone all-in and posed as agents or representatives of actual government agencies including:

• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
• The Federal Reserve Bank
• The IRS (as an agent)
• National Institute of Health (NIH)
• Pell Grants (Federal Student Grants)
• The FDA
• The FTC
• The U.S. Attorney General

Surrounding the impersonations are a collection of fake websites, faked email addresses and phone numbers often faked with a Washington D.C. area code to add dimension to the scam and to enable the scammer to collect more information and continue the ruse. This ability to fake a phone number on your caller ID is called “spoofing” and scammers have even been known to spoof the real phone number for a government agency. If you hit the call back button on this spoofed agency number, it is redirected to the scammer or one of their partners. If you ever have any reason to call a Federal agency under suspicious circumstances, never hit the callback button. Always find the number and dial it directly.

FYI: The only website for genuine federal grants is Grants.gov at https://www.grants.gov

Our investigations into Common Scams of 2023

Signs of a grant scam

They contact you to inform you of your grant

Unless you have applied for a grant, no one especially the government will contact you to award you a grant. The grant application process is very complex requiring significant information related to the purpose of the grant and the status of the application is typically communicated via U.S. mail. That’s not to say a scammer couldn’t try to defraud by mail, but let common sense prevail. If you didn’t apply for a grant, there’s no reason for someone to award you one.

They speak or use very poor English

The communication in both their verbal expressions and their sentence construction are awkward and unprofessional. Even people hired legitimately and professionally through outsourcing to foreign countries have to possess a minimum amount of English language skills and are given written instructions for how to speak to someone on the phone. Scammers are too lazy to make that effort.

Words in written communication are often misspelled

In addition to awkward word usage, frequent spelling errors will often show up in a scammer’s written communication whether it’s an email, website or a form you’re asked to fill out. Here again, professional companies, foundations, and organizations take the time to spell check and proof-read their communication especially for transactions measured in the thousands.

However, don’t automatically assume that the use of proper written and spoken English guarantees authenticity. Scammers know this and many can speak and write the King’s English fluently.

Sense of urgency

There is a great sense of urgency pushing you to act now or call immediately because the grant will expire today. The scammer doesn’t want to give you time to think or worse, ask a family member or friend for advice. They know that the more you think about it and the more input you receive, the more likely you are to determine it’s a scam.

They ask for any kind of payment upfront

There is no charge for a grant. Ever!

If you genuinely are receiving a grant and have been informed that it has been granted there are no fees attached. And before you assume genuine grants have no strings attached, they do. And that gets to the next sign.

They tell you the grant can be used any way you want

Not true. Grants are awarded for highly specific programs, research, or projects – most often to local governments, organizations, institutions, and universities. Grantors strictly monitor how grant money is spent and there are strict guidelines and accounting practices associated with grants.

There are also education grants for college like the Pell Grant. Here again, the money can only be used for direct college costs like tuition, room and board and books, and fees. It’s not personal spending money. If someone tells you to spend the money any way you want -it’s a scam.

They reassure you the grant is guaranteed.

All legitimate grants are guaranteed. If they are granted, the process is complete.

They promise they will do all the work for you. When someone receives a grant, the work is done. The application process has been completed and there’s nothing left to do. Scammers will often use this as another way to rationalize the upfront fee.

Grant scams using hacked Facebook accounts

The biggest challenge for any scammer is to convince the mark that what they’re saying is true. This is especially difficult for scammers who have figured out that their accent, lack of fluency in English or some other limitation makes their behavior and communication suspicious. To get around these barriers to a successful scam they have turned to a new and very insidious communication route.

The Facebook hack begins with a person’s Facebook account getting hacked by a scammer who then combs through their friends list. They then pose as the hacked person and start to send messages to their friends under their name.

These messages are usually sent via Facebook messenger and there’s another double dip. A link will often be embedded in the message and it will typically result in malware invading the victims hard drive and routing as much information as it can find to the scammer.

A click on the link will also lead to a fake page disguised to look like a grant page and a form will be presented asking for as much information as possible including the upfront processing fee.

What to do if a grant scammer contacts you

Get rid of them. Hang up. Delete the email. Delete the Facebook post and inform your friend they’ve been hacked or ask them what that was all about but do not do any of the following:

• Don’t call any phone numbers connected to a surprise grant award.
• Don’t click on any links to anywhere. The scam site will most likely be infecting your computer with malware.
• Don’t give anyone any information including your name.
• If you or a friend have been the victim of a scam on Facebook, contact Facebook and give them all of the details. They will take action to correct the problem as much as possible. You should also alert the friend you believe was hacked by phone, email, or in-person and you may have to post a caution on your Facebook page warning them that you believe you have been hacked.

Attention: Consumers who have been contacted by grant scammers could have had their personal information breached. TotalScam!™ highly recommends that consumers whose information has been breached obtain identity theft protection service immediately.

There are several companies that offer identity theft protection in the US. One of the most inexpensive options we were able to find is the protection offered by LifeLock. You can start your protection here.

Disclaimer: The information and opinions contained on this site are not endorsed by LifeLock. TotalScam!™ receives compensation from LifeLock. This helps support our scam prevention efforts.

General FAQ

Grant Scam Blacklist

The following phone numbers, websites, and emails have been reported to us by the consumer. If you feel this information is incorrect, you may submit a request for removal or correction by contacting us using this form.