'Free' money from official-sounding agency amounts to scam


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SALT LAKE CITY — Thousands of dollars to spend on whatever you’d like, and the government will give it to you free. That's the hook for a scam currently hitting Utah.

Rose Willson had no idea the government could be so giving. A woman from the federal "Welfare and Human Services" office called the Willsons’ home last week and congratulated them on winning a grant worth thousands of dollars.

“You can use it for anything, for paying off bills, remodeling the house, anything like that,” Rose Willson said.

Neither she nor her husband applied for a grant. Still, the woman from an official-sounding agency assured her everything was legitimate.

“Fifteen-hundred people were approved, or were selected to receive this grant,” Willson said.

A little suspicious, she asked what she needed to do to get those funds and how much it would cost.

“She said, ‘Well, there’s going to be a nominal fee,’ ” Willson said. “She said it would be a wire to wire transfer. And I said, ‘Is there any other way to get the money?’ ‘Well, we can put it on a gift card.’”

Willson was certain she was dealing with a scam artist and she was right.

The Federal Trade Commission — a real agency — says the government doesn't hand out grants like that. Grants are for institutions and nonprofits, and they never include a processing fee.

The FTC Consumer Information website offered the following tips to avoid losing money in "government grant" scams:

  • Don't give out your bank account information to anyone you don't know.
  • Don't pay any money for a "free" government grant. The only official access point for all federal grant-making agencies is www.grants.gov.
  • Look-alikes aren't the real thing.
  • Phone numbers can deceive.
  • Take control of the calls you receive.
    If you want to reduce the number of telemarketing calls you receive, place your telephone number on the National Do Not Call Registry. To register online, visit donotcall.gov.
  • File a complaint with the FTC.
    If you think you may have been a victim of a government grant scam, file a complaint with the FTC online, or call toll-free, 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357).

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Bill Gephardt

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