PRINTFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
False Claims of NEH Grant Winners
WASHINGTON (June 21, 2016) – The National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), a federal grantmaking agency, is committed to suppressing an ongoing scam being perpetrated through Facebook, texting, and other mediums. This scam involves someone claiming to be an NEH employee contacting you through Facebook Messenger or text telling you that you are “on a list for a grant,” and instructing you to send payment before they will send you the grant funds. Please be advised that this is a scam.
NEH and its employees will never ask you to send money to receive a grant or other forms of financial assistance. Nor will NEH and its employees ever ask you to wire money or add money to a prepaid debit card to pay for associated processing or delivery fees.
NEH does not use Facebook or text to contact individuals concerning grant awards. If the name on the Facebook account is familiar to you (such as a friend or NEH employee), the scammer has created the account to impersonate someone you know in order to initiate and support this fraudulent scheme. Do not provide any personal information or send money to anyone claiming to be an NEH employee.
If someone purporting to be an NEH employee has contacted you through Facebook, please report the incident to Facebook so that it can remove the fraudulent account. In addition, you may report the incident to NEH’s Office of Inspector General at 1-877-786-7598 or via email at oig@neh.gov. You may also report it to the Federal Trade Commission at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation at http://www.ic3.gov.
Please take the necessary precautions to protect yourself.
Resources:
NEH Facebook page – This is the official NEH Facebook page, which has been verified by Facebook.
How to Recognize a Government Imposter - https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0048-government-imposter-scams