OMAHA, Neb. — The BBB serving Nebraska, South Dakota, the Kansas Plains and Southwest Iowa is warning that a Heartland woman lost $5,600 to scammers this month after she was told she could secure a lucrative grant on Facebook. 

The woman was first contacted on Dec. 16, 2021 by a scammer who offered the grant in exchange for a down payment. By putting down as little as $1,500, the woman was told she could receive up to $25,000, so she followed the directions to apply. A scammer told the woman to purchase $4,100 in gift cards and to send the card information over in a message, which she did. An additional $5,000 was later requested, but the woman refused. 

A short while later, a scammer under the name of one of the victim’s friends contacted the woman and mentioned a separate grant to pursue. The victim applied for the second grant and provided the scammer with an additional $1,500 in gift cards. The transaction was interrupted before scammers were able to access the woman’s bank information, so the scammer repeatedly attempted to contact the woman under the account names of various friends and family members, including the woman’s uncle. After calling her uncle to determine whether or not he had contacted her on social media, the woman was told by her uncle that he hadn’t sent the message. After she stopped speaking with the scammer, the woman has heard from a number of friends on Facebook that they had received messages from her account in recent weeks. 

The Better Business Bureau (BBB) warns scammers who execute fake sweepstakes and lottery scams deploy nearly identical tactics to lure victims into fake grant scams. These scammers reach out to unsuspecting victims through a variety of channels: phone calls, email, notices in the mail, text messages and, increasingly, over social media. A BBB investigative study on sweepstakes, lottery and prize scams noted that one third of the sweepstakes fraud complaints reported to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) involve social media, and a majority of those victims are over the age of 60. Facebook is frequently the social media platform cited in lottery scam reports made to BBB’s Scam Tracker because of confusion surrounding its privacy settings and the ability of its private messaging app, Messenger, to be used with or without a profile. 

Facebook profiles are relatively easy for a scammer to duplicate, and fraudsters are known to copy the information and profile picture of people to create mirroring accounts. Login credentials of many Facebook users can be purchased for as little as $5.20 on the dark web. 

How to tell fake grant offers and/or fake lottery and sweepstakes from real ones:

• True grants, lotteries or sweepstakes don’t ask for money. If someone wants money for taxes, themselves, or a third party, they are most likely crooks.

• You have to enter to win. To win a lottery, you must buy a lottery ticket. To win a sweepstakes or prize, you must have entered first. The same holds true for grants: If you didn’t apply, you shouldn’t receive one. If you can’t remember doing so, that’s a red flag.

• Call the sweepstakes company or grant organization directly to see if you won. Popular companies like Publishers Clearing House (PCH) don’t call people in advance to tell them they’ve won. Report imposters or check to see if you have actually won at 800-392-4190.

• Check to see if you won a lottery or grant. Call the North American Association of State and Provincial Lotteries at 440-361-7962 or your local state lottery agency. If you applied for a grant, check out the official website to verify if you are the recipient.

• Do an internet search of the company, name or phone number of the person who contacted you.

• Talk to a trusted family member or your bank. They may be able to help.

If you think you have been a target of grant/lottery/sweepstakes fraud, file a report with:

• BBB Scam Tracker, or contact your local BBB

• Federal Trade Commission (FTC), or call 877-FTC-Help

• Senate Subcommittee on Aging Fraud hotline: 1-855-303-9470

• Facebook: log reports of log reports of hacked or fake profiles

• The FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center: //ic3.gov/complaint/default.aspx