Picture it: A Facebook friend messages you with some fabulous information about a free government grant she discovered. It’s definitely not a scam, she excitedly assures you. She knows this for sure because Federal Express just delivered a check right to her front door!
This Facebook friend has even better news. You also qualify for the same government grant and your buddy wants to walk you through the process. Pronto. You can’t dawdle because the government could run out of funds for additional grants at any time.
Your friend gives you the Facebook page of the government agent who successfully processed her grant. The site and Agent Thomas George sitting in front of a United States flag, look official. Your pal urges you to contact him ASAP before it’s too late. So you set to work to get your application, filled with all your personal information, immediately filed.
Unfortunately, this is a scam playing out in Facebook Messenger every single day taking advantage of the elderly and naive.
What’s the end con here and could you or a loved one fall victim?
I recently spoke to one of these con artists who was posing as one of my Facebook friends. Here’s what I learned and what you need to know about the government grants scam.
Why is this friend contacting me through Facebook messenger?
One afternoon while I was in my office busy answering consumer questions, the “bing” alert from Facebook Messenger distracted me. Looking over at the message, I knew immediately that a scammer was contacting me.
“Hi Michelle, How are you doing?” it read. “I saw your name on CDBG list,Did someone got ahold of you from them?” [SIC]
The nearly incoherent message appeared to be coming from someone I’ve known for many years. Shirley was a volunteer at the nonprofit where I was previously the executive director.
Shirley and I have corresponded over the years via phone and email. But the glaring grammatical errors and the lack of a profile picture told me all I needed to know about whoever this was.
I was sure beyond a doubt that it wasn’t Shirley.
A Facebook friend with fabulous news about a government grant
If you’re a regular reader of my columns then you know what happened next. I frequently engage with scammers so I can learn about their schemes and warn our readers about the tactics of these crooks.
I dropped what I was doing to chat with this predator prowling around Facebook Messenger.
Me: “Hi, Shirley. What’s new? I don’t know what you’re asking about. What is CDGB?”
I was about to find out that a lot of things were new with “Shirley.” Primarily that she had amazingly just received $150,000 of free money through a government grant program.
And Shirley intended to help me get the same windfall.
This scammer attempts to reel in their victim
My pretend Facebook friend told me she had seen my name on the eligibility list for the grant. So she was surprised that I didn’t already know about it.
Fake Shirley: “Really? The Community Development Block Grant (CDBG) program is a special program for helping the Young, old, retired and non retired with check for paying bills, buying homes. I got $150,000 check rom them when i apply for it the money is free which I won’t have to pay it back.” [SIC]
When I got distracted and didn’t answer Shirley immediately, she grew impatient.
Fake Shirley: “Should I give you there Facebook page to give a try now and will also guide you here?” [SIC]
Shirley’s grammar and spelling were getting worse by the moment. But I pretended not to notice.
Me: How much did you pay to get your $150,000, Shirley?
Fake Shirley then admits there is a cost involved in getting this “free” money. Then she shares the Facebook page of Agent Thomas George.
Fake Shirley: “Yeah, I only paid $2000 for the tax and clearance fee for the delivery of the money cause it was delivered to me by FedEx.” [SIC]
Before I could respond, Fake Shirley sends me the link to Agent Thomas George, the government agent she says will process my grant.
Me: So I have to pay Agent Thomas George $2,000 for an application fee and then I’ll get $150,000? Do I pay him directly? How do I pay him? I have so many questions. I’m going to call you now.
Of course, my pretend Facebook friend was unable to take my phone call.
Fake Shirley: : “I can only text you here privately cause I can’t make call on my cell prepaid. Did you text agent Thomas George yet??” [SIC]
Of course, I had not and didn’t intend to do so. I figured I could get all the information I needed about this scam from Fake Shirley.
Who is Agent Thomas George issuing money on Facebook?
I had a peek at the Facebook page of Agent Thomas George and I initially found it comical. After I put the photo of Agent Thomas George in Google images it was clear that this was just a photo of former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates.
These scammers had just lifted the photo directly from the website of the Department of Defense.
But then things took a very disturbing turn when I looked at the video section of this Facebook page.
Somehow, these scammers had enticed a handful of elderly people to film themselves thanking Agent Thomas George and Facebook for their “winnings.” One man was barely able to keep his eyes open during his testimonial. These blurry videos looked like someone filmed them in a nursing home.
This page was clearly dangerous to the Facebook community – especially elderly and naive members.
Why won’t my Facebook friend give me a short loan?
While I was busy exploring and reporting the fraudulent page of Agent Thomas George, Fake Shirley was continuing to message me. She wanted to get my application on file by the end of the day.
Fake Shirley: Have you completed the application? Michelle??
It was time to have a little fun with Fake Shirley. I decided to ask my newly loaded “friend” for a loan.
Me: I want to apply for the grant. But I don’t have the money today, Shirley. Can you lend me the $2,000? I’ll pay you back when I get my $150,000.
Surprisingly my old friend who just told me about this giant windfall she’d received didn’t readily agree to loan me the measly $2,000 I needed.
I reminded “Shirley” that I had lent her money in the past and she should return the favor. (To be clear: I’ve never lent the real Shirley any money nor has she asked.)
Me: Shirley, I’ve lent you money before when you needed it so how about you lay out the money for me today and then I’ll pay you back as soon as I get my $150,000. Can you do that for me? Remember when you needed $10,000 to pay your taxes and I lent it to you? It seems like you should be able to return the favor now – especially since you got all that money already! I didn’t know you were over there sitting on a lump of money like that!
Previously, Fake Shirley had answered me immediately. Now she was strangely silent. I thought I might not hear from this scammer again. But then she was back with an explanation as to why she couldn’t lend me any money despite her giant windfall.
Fake Shirley: “I got them used. I got new home equipment paid some debt am in. Am sharing this news with you because am sure it could be helpful and I will stand responsible for it” [SIC]
I won’t be falling for the government grant scam
Fake Shirley was unwilling to give up on me. I think “she” offered to make a $500 down payment on my grant fee through the “cashier’s office” at Agent Thomas George’s office. That would allow my application to be processed without paying the full $2,000, but I would need to send a money order the next day before my $150,000 could be shipped to me.
I had heard enough and had other work to do, so I let this scammer know he was wasting his time.
Fake Shirley: “Michelle, do you trust me at all?”
Me: No, not at all. You’re just a common scammer trying to take advantage of people. That’s too bad. You should be ashamed of yourself.
Of course, that was the last I heard from Fake Shirley, but this scammer did go back and unsend a link to Agent Thomas George’s Facebook page. However, by then I had already reported it to Facebook.
But I would soon learn that reporting that fraudulent page wouldn’t make a difference.
Why you should hide your Facebook friends list
After I finished my conversation with Fake Shirley, I contacted the real Shirley so she could warn her friends of her evil Facebook impersonator trolling around Messenger.
It’s important to note that Fake Shirley didn’t hack into the real Shirley’s account. The scammer simply created an additional Facebook account and then friended people from Shirley’s public Facebook friend’s list.
TIP: Hiding your Facebook friends list from public view can prevent bad guys from harvesting your friends to add to fake duplicate accounts. To hide your friends list go to your friends list and at the top right corner, click the three dots. Then hit edit privacy and choose who should be able to see the people you’re friends with on Facebook.
The government grants scam is all over Facebook
After I reported Agent Thomas George’s Facebook page with its fraudulent photos and promises, it was removed. However, there are still many similar pages on Facebook. Sometimes, Agent Thomas George is a different person, and sometimes the name of the agent is different. But the goal is the same, to trick elderly and naive people into handing over personal information and their money.
So, not only will the victim of the government grants scam lose their money, but their identity will also be stolen.
The Federal Trade Commission has issued a warning about the grants scam. FYI: It is not exclusively found on Facebook although it is all over the social media giant’s pages).
Thousands of consumers have reported losing millions of dollars to scams related to fake government grants. Victims have reported the schemes beginning with a text, email or in some cases an automated phone call alerting them to their eligibility.
The FTC urges consumers to report these scams. Of course, it’s important to remember that the government has no way to retrieve money sent to scammers. But reporting the schemes can help future victims from falling prey.
Unfortunately, it doesn’t appear that Facebook is aggressively culling its platform of these predators. Even Fake Shirley’s profile is still active. Although I reported her attempts to lure me into the government grant scam and provided the transcripts of our chat in Facebook Messenger, I almost immediately received an AI-generated response to my complaint that the profile did not violate community standards.
Warn your at-risk friends and family about Facebook scams
The government grants scam is just one of many schemes floating around Facebook. Although you may be reasonably certain that you wouldn’t fall for any of these con games, unfortunately, there are many people who do.
The elderly people who I saw in the videos on Agent Thomas George’s Facebook page were certainly coerced to film those testimonials. In the past, I’ve heard from scam victims who told me that they were encouraged to film similar videos with the promise that if they did they would get their money back. Of course, the criminals never returned their cash. They simply published their videos to lure more victims.
Keep an eye on your friends and family members who may be less savvy on Facebook, Instagram and other social media. It isn’t just the elderly that can fall victim to these scams, but also desperate people hoping for such a windfall to answer their prayers. Young people are also susceptible to get-rich-quick schemes. In fact, a frazzled mom recently sent me a request for help.
Instagram scammers took advantage of her 17-year-old son who suffers from learning disabilities. His victimizers were people who he believed to be friends on the social media platform.
Predatory people fill the world, looking for ways to take advantage of others. Unfortunately, I know this firsthand from my work every day. You can be sure that I’ll keep talking with these crooks to learn about their latest schemes. If you spread the word to your friends and family, together, we can all make it just a little more difficult for these ruthless swindlers to conduct their illicit business. (Michelle Couch-Friedman, founder of Consumer Rescue)
I love it. A scam doesn’t violate their “Standards.” They all should rot in a hot place.
Hilarious, but my favorite scam is the “Wendy Wilcox and her dog Willis”!
It’s long, but SO well worth the read!
https://www.wendywillcox.50megs.com/
This is one of the reasons why I got rid of Facebook in 2017 after I left college.
When greed motivates, common sense flies out the window.