National Endowment for the Arts Warns Public about Grant Scam

Washington, DC—The National Endowment for the Arts, a federal grantmaking agency, is the subject of a scam and is alerting the public not to respond to fraudulent notifications. Through this scam, perpetrators claiming to be NEA employees are contacting the public via Facebook, email, or phone to inform them that they have received an NEA grant and must provide seed money to an account to release the grant funds. Furthermore, the perpetrators state that the amount released by the targeted individual increases depending on the amount that the individual puts forward. They might frame the requested money as a processing or delivery fee. Please do not respond to these messages. It is an attempt to defraud you. The NEA never notifies individuals or organizations that are recommended for a grant through Facebook and never requests money before releasing grant funds. If you are contacted by someone purporting to be with the National Endowment for the Arts who asks you to send money in order to receive a grant, please report this incident to the NEA’s Office of Inspector General via email at oig@arts.gov or by calling 202-682-5402. You may also report it to the Federal Trade Commission at https://www.ftccomplaintassistant.gov, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation at http://www.ic3.gov.  Please protect yourself against this fraudulent activity.