{"id":1020,"date":"2019-07-16T01:46:14","date_gmt":"2019-07-16T01:46:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.grantwatch.com\/blog\/?p=1020"},"modified":"2022-12-02T00:00:33","modified_gmt":"2022-12-02T05:00:33","slug":"why-would-you-think-you-were-awarded-a-grant-if-you-never-applied-for-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.grantwatch.com\/grantnews\/why-would-you-think-you-were-awarded-a-grant-if-you-never-applied-for-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Would You Think You Were Awarded A Grant If You Never Applied For It?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Did you ever get a call from someone claiming you’d been awarded a grant?<\/h6>\n

At the end of the day, if you didn’t apply for a grant, then you definitely did not<\/strong> win one! Additionally, if anyone says to need to pay money to receive a grant, then it is more than likely a scam. An epidemic of scams and imposters are prevalent on social media at the moment, prying on people in these challenging times.<\/p>\n

The saying, “if it sounds too good to be true, it is,” holds true for grant offerings.\u00a0Many listings for grants are not legitimate. If you didn’t apply for it, you did not get a grant. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, FBI, and other federal agencies, fake U.S. grant scams are on the rise across the country.<\/p>\n

At GrantWatch<\/a>, we research every grant we list so that people searching for grants can be sure of the authenticity of everything they find on our site. GrantWatch lists grants you can apply for. Our grants go through a grant researcher, grant associate, proofreader, editor, and publisher to make sure they are\u00a0all legitimate and to protect people from scams.<\/p>\n

While you should never pay for a grant, you might find it helpful to pay for assistance in researching, locating, and applying for grants. What GrantWatch does is aggregate grants from\u00a0foundations, corporations and government agencies, and lists them all in one place, published in an easy user-friendly searchable format. Due to all the work involved in the process, there is a fee.<\/p>\n

How to avoid a Grant Scam<\/h2>\n

People\u00a0get calls, emails, or letters claiming\u00a0to be from branches of the federal government like the IRS or the FBI that say\u00a0they’ve won a\u00a0free grant, and that all they\u00a0have to do is pay the processing fee or provide their bank account and\/or their social security number\u00a0to receive the money.<\/p>\n

Remember: No legitimate federal government agency employee would ever call and tell you that you qualify or have been approved for a grant that you haven’t applied for.<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to Security University founder and CEO, Sondra Schneider, “There’s definitely a lot of people who send out bait and want to get a hook into you, so you need to check the hook. Check the URL address, explore\u00a0the website, do a screenshot when you get emails or texts.”<\/p>\n

“You want to validate the hook. There’s no way a valid URL will look fishy. If people go to places like SAM to apply for grants, chances are slim that you’ll be scammed. Real grantors will never call you up and ask you for personal\u00a0contact information, after you’ve already been awarded a grant.”\u00a0 If you applied all of that would have been in the original application.<\/p>\n

If you’re really awarded a grant, you will get an email, a letter, and a phone call from the grantors to set up a time to meet with you.<\/p>\n

What not to do<\/h2>\n