Read the fine print on the government grant ad on Facebook

Updated

You may have seen ads all over the Internet promising you thousands of dollars of government grant money. You're asked to pay a small fee (usually about $1 or $2) plus shipping and handling for a CD to tell you how to get this grant money. Beware: These grants don't exist and you could be stuck with monthly charges on your credit card if you sign up for it.

When you look at the contact information from the various Web sites, you'll find the outfit is based in Las Vegas, NV, and being run by a company called the Grant Access Club. In case you've already been duped, their address on the Web site is 5348 Vegas Drive, Suite 866. When I put that address into Google Maps I got an approximate location that looked like a parking lot with some small houses in the back. Whether this business is being run out of one of those houses or this is a bogus address, I don't know.

Some think Facebook bears responsibility for allowing this scam to grow rapidly on their pages through its affinity marketing network of advertisers. The biggest problem with this scam is that if you get caught up in it there is no easy way to call and cancel the program.

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