Fake award notices

The message arrives addressed to your executive director or board chair: your organization has been selected, pre-approved, or shortlisted for a grant. You didn't apply. That alone settles it.

Why it can't be real

Government and foundation grants are awarded to applicants. An agency cannot award funds to an organization that never submitted an application, budget, and signed assurances. "Selection" without an application isn't how any grant program works. The HHS guide puts it plainly: no legitimate federal employee will call to say you qualify for a grant you never applied for.

Common shapes

• The congratulations email with an agency logo, a reference number, and a link to "claim" the award. The link leads to a form asking for EIN, bank details, or a fee.
• The phone call from "the grants department." Caller ID shows a 202 area code. Caller ID is trivially spoofed; it proves nothing.
• The social-media message from an account imitating a foundation, or from a "friend" whose account was taken over, saying they got a grant and you should apply through their contact.
• The follow-up for a real application. Scammers watch public award lists and contact real applicants claiming an extra step or fee is needed. Verify through the contact in the original guidelines, not the one in the new message.

How to verify any award notice

1. Did you apply? If not, it's fake. Done.
2. If you did apply: find the program's listing on grants.ca.gov or grants.gov and use the contact details published there, not the ones in the notice.
3. Check the sender domain character by character. A California agency writes from a ca.gov address; federal agencies from .gov. Look-alikes (ca-gov.org, grants-ca.com, a Gmail address) are the tell.
4. Never click a "claim" link. A real award comes with an agreement to review and sign, usually through the same portal you applied in.

Sources and where to report

• U.S. Department of Health & Human Services, Avoid Grant Scams
• Federal Trade Commission, Prize and Grant Scams
• Report a scam: reportfraud.ftc.gov. Impersonation of a federal grant program: the HHS Fraud Hotline, 1-800-447-8477. A California state program being impersonated: contact that agency directly through its listing on grants.ca.gov.

Grants for Nonprofits is an independent directory. We do not investigate scams or take reports; use the official channels above.