Demartek Comments on Government Grants Phone Scam
3 August 2017
By Dennis Martin, Demartek President
Today I was called from a blocked telephone number by a woman claiming to be from the “United States Federal Grants Department.” She said that because I pay my taxes on time and do not have a criminal record, the federal government is awarding me a grant of $9200.00 that does not have to be repaid. My immediate thought was that this was a scam call, but I decided to play along briefly. I asked her to repeat the name of the government department, which she did. She then went on to repeat that my name and telephone number were selected because I am a good citizen by paying my taxes, etc. I asked her what name she had for me, and she said she had to pull up the record to get my full name. A few seconds later, the call dropped. Apparently, she did not know the name of the person she was calling.
This is yet another example of a scam attempting to commit fraud. This is a well known scam, which the US Federal Trade Commission has documented, and has been going on for years. You can read other accounts of this attempted scam by searching for “United States Federal Grants Department” in your favorite Internet search engine. Other websites that document scams have also documented this fraud attempt.
You may also want to read the Demartek Identity Theft Prevention Tips and Commentary, available in English and Spanish. Other scam attempts that we have received are listed under “related content” on the left column of this page.
Official IRS page: Tax Scams/Consumer Alerts
The IRS has a full page discussing tax scams and consumer alerts that is updated periodically.