RATHDRUM, Idaho – A fraudulent incident involving scammers stealing money by offering fake U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) grants through social media and fake websites was alerted to the Rathdrum Police Department Tuesday morning.
According to the department, the HHS and Office of Inspector General are alerting the public to this new type of fraud scheme.
The scammers reportedly contact people through various forms of social media, pretending to be members of the HHS by providing fake employee information and direct them to fake websites, online chats or live customer support.
From there, the scammers tell the people they’re targeting that they’ve won free government grant money and proceed to ask them for their personal or financial information.
The department advised people to never respond to these fraudulent messages or provide any personal or financial information to those contacting you via social media, email or otherwise offering free HHS grants.
Additionally, the department said that the HHS does not contact people through social media asking them to either pay or provide personal information in exchange for a grant.
Another way to check for scammers is by looking at the domain name of the website. The HHS websites always use a .gov domain., meaning that any HHS websites ending in .org, .com or .us are spoof HHS websites, according to the department.
The department requests that those who receive fraudulent messages or calls submit a hotline complaint or call 1-800-HHS-TIPS.
