{"id":308063,"date":"2014-07-21T13:53:04","date_gmt":"2014-07-21T18:53:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ktbb.com\/post\/?p=308063"},"modified":"2026-07-05T07:58:40","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:58:40","slug":"government-grant-phone-scam-targets-east-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/?p=308063","title":{"rendered":"“Government Grant” Phone Scam Targets East Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Better<\/a>TYLER — The Better Business Bureau Serving Central East Texas is warning the public to be extremely wary of phone calls claiming to come from bogus government grant agencies. BBB has received calls from residents concerning unsolicited telephone grant offers that are nothing more than an attempt to clear bank accounts. East Texas consumers have been receiving phone calls telling them they have been awarded a grant through the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. But the caller says in order to get the grant, you’ll need to provide bank account and other personally identifying information. Ultimately, consumers do not receive any grant money, and may lose their own money in the process. <\/p>\n

\u201cGovernment agencies do not make phone calls to individuals to solicit funds or financial information\u201d, said Mechele Agbayani Mills, President and CEO of BBB Serving Central East Texas. \u201cThere is an application process for all government grants. If you have not submitted an application for a grant, you will not be awarded one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Visit http:\/\/www.grants.gov<\/a> if you would like to apply for a grant. Mills says this website provides all of the federal grant opportunities, including different types of grants, rules for applying, and how to track your submissions. You can report those who pretend to hand out grants on the government\u2019s behalf to 1-800-447-8477. <\/p>\n

BBB provides additional tips for dealing with this scam:<\/p>\n

\u2022\tGovernment grants have to be applied for in order to receive. You must apply for government grants in order to be eligible to receive the benefits. If you did not apply for a grant, you will not be eligible to receive the funds.
\n\u2022\tThe government doesn’t call you to contact you for such matters. The government will not notify you of your eligibility over the phone. The government notifies grant recipients through mailed letters or e-mails based on your submitted grant application.
\n\u2022\tIf you get one of these calls, just hang up. You may be tempted to call back, but this will only give the scammer another opportunity to steal your information.<\/p>\n

\u2022\tDon\u2019t give out your personal information to someone you don\u2019t know. Never give out your bank account numbers, date of birth, credit card number or Social Security number to an unsolicited caller or anyone you don\u2019t know.
\n\u2022\tThere are no fees for government grants. According to grants.gov, the FTC points out you shouldn’t have to pay fees for a \u201cfree\u201d government grant.
\nTo help prevent these types of calls, BBB encourages consumers to sign up for the Federal Trade Commission\u2019s Do Not Call Registry by calling 1-888-382-1222 or visiting donotcall.gov. If you are unsure if a business or a phone call is legitimate, please verify at bbb.org or call 903-581-5704.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

TYLER — The Better Business Bureau Serving Central East Texas is warning the public to be extremely wary of phone calls claiming to come from bogus government grant agencies. BBB has received calls from residents concerning unsolicited telephone grant offers that are nothing more than an attempt to clear bank accounts. East Texas consumers have … Continue reading “Government Grant” Phone Scam Targets East Texas<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":1520294,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"http:\/\/www.ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2014\/07\/Better-Business-Bureau-150x150.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[177],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-308063","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news-archive-archives"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-11 13:29:10","action":"change-status","newStatus":"trash","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"fifu_image_url":"http:\/\/www.ktbb.com\/post\/wp-content\/media\/2014\/07\/Better-Business-Bureau-150x150.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308063","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=308063"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308063\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":308130,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/308063\/revisions\/308130"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1520294"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=308063"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=308063"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ktbb.com\/post\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=308063"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}