An advanced-fee scam clones your Facebook friends Facebook account and sends you a message about a “Federal Government Christmas Grant.”
I recently got a friend request on Facebook from someone I was already friends with. The account had no posts, no displayed friends, and only one picture so I knew it was fraudulent. Then the account sent me a message saying “hello, how are you?” I replied to them out of curiosity and discovered the fake account was being used to gather my personal information and promote an advanced-fee scam.
The scammer promised me that I could obtain money through a Federal Government Christmas Grant program (FGCG) if I sent an email to Agentstevendonald@gmail.com, filled out a form, and made an advanced payment.
I sent an email message to the address the scammer wanted me to. Oddly enough, the email messages I received back only contained text in the subject and not in the body. This might be done to bypass spam filters.
Transcript of Facebook messages:
Hello
How are you doing
Good. How are you?
Am doing pretty good
Hope life is blessed with you
You too
Good I hope all is well with you there, am so exited to see you online here many good things has been happening on here i wonder if you have heard about the good news for the new program made by the Federal Government for this upcoming Christmas?
Nope. What is it?
it’s called (FGCG) FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CHRISTMAS GRANT, it’s for the season promo to help the citizens to have a wonderful Christmas experience this time around and also to help Retired, Workers, Youth, Old and Disable with cash in the society, Do you get anything from them?
No?
I got $100000 from them cash when I apply for the grant.
No paying back
Oh how cool!
Did you know how to apply
No, please tell me!
Agentstevendonald@gmail.com
Omg who is agent steven donald?
You are to text them that a friend of you told you about it that you want to apply.
He is the agent in charge of the grant
thank you so much, im going to email him
Okay
I sent him a message. I hope I can get money too
Hope he replies soon
They will get back to you
Just keep me posted
trhanks so much
i love this
i think i will get 300000 if it ry hard
Yes
You will be giving a form to fill
You will pay for delivery fees
Transcript of email messages:
Hello
Am Steven Donald
Before we proceed as a Grant qualifier, we will like you to describe what you will use the money for. Here are some different categories of fund we offered people. >Disabled >Non-profit Organizations >Community Development >Historical Building Restoration >Education and Tuition >Small and Large Businesses >Housing and Real Estate >Medical Research >Personal Assistance >Inventors >Rent Assistance >Faith-based Organizations >Home Repair >Minorities >Child Care >Seniors.
Applying for a grant is a process and typically involves an application. Filling out this application is known as Grant Writing (also referred to as proposals or submissions).
Are you ready to fill out the info now
Full name…….. Mother’s maiden name……. Full Home Address…… Male/Female……. Your Age….. Married/Single….. PagerNumber/TextPhone…. E-mail…….. Hearing or Deaf……. Monthly Worth of income…. Do you have a car…. What do you do for living……… Do you Own a house or Rent Apartment…….. do you want cash or check?
Congratulation as our verification team alerts that your data verification process was successful also you are qualify for the grant,all your information will be saved into our database so that we won’t deliver the grant to the wrong person.
you are to choose below amount you want to apply . Are you there with me You pay $500 & get $50,000,00 You pay $1000 & get $100,000,00. You pay $1,500 & get $150,000,00. You pay $2,000 & get $200,000,00. You pay $2,500 & get $250,000,00. You pay $3,000 & get $300,000,00. You pay $3,500 & get $350,000.00. You pay $4,000 & get $400,000.00. You pay $4,500 & get $450,000,00. You pay $5,000 & get $500,000,00. You pay $6,000 & get $550,000,00. You pay $7,000 & get $700,000,00. You pay $9,000 & get $900,000,00. You pay $10,000 & get $100,000,000.00.
Name… Freddie Lee givens jr State… California Country…USA Zip code..91752
You are to go to Walmart to make the payment and send me the receipt here.
As you can see, it’s easy to tell that this is a setup. However, some people might still fall for this type of scam and that is why I wrote this post to warn them.
The purpose of the ‘Federal Government Christmas Grant’ scam is to trick people into believing that they can obtain a large amount of money if they provide personal information (mother’s maiden name, full home address, age, phone number, etc.) and make an advanced payment. In reality, they will not receive a grant from the scammer and the advanced payment will likely be lost.
If you receive a message like the one on this page, report the fraudulent account and hope that Facebook removes it shortly.
To report a Facebook account, visit the profile and click the icon (3 dot icon) next to messages. Select Give feedback or report this profile and click Fake account or Pretending to be someone depending on the situation.
If you made an advanced payment, contact your bank or credit card company to dispute the charge.
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