The coronavirus outbreak has made the U.S. economy so topsy-turvy that the president has been working with Congress to issue relief checks to many of us. We’ll share the details of that program as soon as they’re official, but in the meantime, make sure you don’t get duped by a scammer, OK?
Ahead of the government’s expected issue of stimulus checks, the Federal Trade Commission is warning consumers to be wary of anyone who claims they can get you cash fast. A few safety rules of thumb from to the FTC’s blog:
1. The government will not ask you to pay anything up front to get this money. No fees. No charges. No nothing.
2. The government will not call to ask for your Social Security number, bank account, or credit card number. Anyone who does is a scammer.
3. These reports of checks aren’t yet a reality. Anyone who tells you they can get you the money now is a scammer.
You may think this warning is too obvious for you, but think of the people you might want to warn as rumors about relief funding swirl: Maybe your parents or grandparents or your elderly neighbors. Maybe your kids, who were too young to remember the stimulus checks we got during the recession.
“Look, normally we’d wait to know what the payment plan looks like before we put out a message like this,” wrote Jennifer Leach, associate director of the Division of Consumer and Business Education. “But these aren’t normal times. And we predict that the scammers are gearing up to take advantage of this.”