The Government Grant Scam

A few weeks ago, I wrote about financial scams (read blog here) where people would give you a check to cash and tell you that you could keep some of that money just for cashing the check. You then cash the check, send them a part of the proceeds, and then the check bounces and you are out the money that you sent.

Well, there is another scam going right now and these scammers are bold in using advertisements and websites. It is the free grant money scam.

One listener writes in:

I know that this is too good to be true, but I wanted to run this by you....
Have you heard of www.Contactgrantpeople.com?
I just received a letter in the mail from this company stating that they
are a broker at Grant Organization and that I have been selected to receive a
$9960.00 cash grant. This money comes from large corporations and wealthy
individuals that give away money in a form of financial assistance. The
check is for $4980 and if I cash or deposit the check, I must send him his 10%
commission ($498.00) and then they will send the remaining $4980 airmail
express.

Now I cannot speak to whether or not these people are scammers. This is a real website. Everything that they advertise does fit. This is what the Federal Trade Commission had to say about this scam:

"The defendants advertised guaranteed 'free grants.' But the only grant was to
them. They took consumers' money, they did not honor their guarantees, and they
gave consumers nothing more than empty promises of free money," said Howard
Beales, Director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection. "Consumers should
keep in mind that most sources of grant money have strict criteria; they do not
give individuals money for nothing." (to read article, click here)

Here is a simple rule of thumb when it comes to this sort of thing:
Never take any offer where someone is just going to give you something for doing virtually nothing. There is no free lunch.

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