Grants are non-repayable funds or products disbursed or given by one party (grant makers), often a government department, corporation, foundation or trust, to a recipient, often (but not always) a nonprofit entity, educational institution, business or an individual.
Grants make one of the major sources of income of social sector organisations. Often, these organisations fall victim to scams and fraudulent offers, lose money and even close down. Based on an observation by fundsforngos.com, the fraudsters are clever enough to use the fake identities of renowned international funding agencies and development organizations like the United Nations, the World Bank, Ford Foundation, Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to name a few and make NGOs believe that their offers are genuine.
Here’s how to identify these scams and protect yourself from them
1. Look at the Content of their Messages:
Most of the time, they use bad grammar and misspelt terms. There was once a Women Conference in New York scam widely seen by social changemakers. It had a statement like “we have received your application to be a participator in…” which in proper grammar should have been “we have received your application to be a participant in…” It happens like that many times.
2. Check Email Address:
A grant notice from the World Health Organisation should not be coming from www.activewhoemail.yahoo.com. The email address should not be different from the official email. How do you know this? Check their website. If their email has been hacked, the information would be there.
Also, if the email enters your spam messages folder, there’s a reason to investigate it.
3. Check Social Media for Grants Available
The grant they claim you got, is it a running grant stated on the organisation’s social media handle or website? Enough information on the names and duration of grants should be stated there.
4. Give Backs?
No organisation would ask you for a deposit to access grants which would be refunded to you. When you see such, it’s a scam.
It gets a little confusing when it is to make payments for a conference and hotel. Check out the named hotel. Does it exist? Check out booking methods. Is it the same as the procedure outlined in the email sent to you?
5. Private Information:
A grant-giving organisation doesn’t need your Bank Verification Number or Card details. Nobody actually would require this, not even your bank.
Be wary of people who ask for these such details. They’re exclusive to you.
6. Process
The process of obtaining the grant is key. Taxes are not paid on grants. Deposits are not made. Unlikely processes are pointers to the fact that it might be a scam.
What do you do when you identify a scam?
There are two things you can do to scam messages:
- Snub them. Never reply to scam messages. You might be giving information from responding.
- Alert the camouflaged organisation of what is going on. A scam alert on their website or social media would go a long way to save others from falling victim.
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