Fraudsters fronting as tax agents were responsible for the bulk of the scams brought to the attention of the Better Business Bureau in 2015, but residents of the Washington, D.C. area were more likely to be the targeted with false promises of free government money those than most anywhere else in America, an investigation has revealed.
An analysis of every attempted shakedown logged by the consumer watchdog group during most of the last calendar year determined that scams involving fake IRS agents dominated schemes nationwide, with the BBB becoming aware of 2,350 instances from coast-to-coast in which supposed tax collectors called up potential victims and told them they owed unpaid money to the federal government — nearly twice as many as the next-most prevalent con: credit card scams.
In Washington, D.C., however, fraudsters were more likely to try to make bank by offering government grant money — a scheme that represented 22 percent of all reports filed out of the capital region with the Bureau between February 13, 2015 and December 4, 2015, according to a review done by ConsumerProtect.com, a California-based group that monitors such scams.
While the District wasn’t targeted by con artists to the same degree as other locales — Idaho saw 24 scams reported per 100,000 residents during that span, compared to roughly 3 for every 100,000 in D.C. — government grant fronts were more common in the nation’s capital than nearly anywhere else, the group found, and ranked number three in the nation with respect to all fraudulent government grant offers per capita.
“When we looked at the data, we were not surprised to see that D.C. had one of the highest percentages of fraudulent government grant offers considering the prevalence of government agencies in the District,” said Michael Bennett, the director of ConsumerProtect.com.
“Government grant money scams are a popular one here in D.C. by the very nature of the scam,” Kelsey Owen of the BBB’s regional office told The Washington Times. “Usually disguised with 202 area codes, the government grant scam has a way of tricking folks, especially those in Washington, into answering the phone call and into thinking it’s legitimate.”
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Indeed, a “Scam Tracker” portal hosted on the organization’s website includes first-hand accounts from D.C. area residents who reported being targeted by all sorts of grifts during the last several months, including several who said they received phone calls from local numbers in which they were told they were eligible for federal grants worth upwards of $9,000, but only after making a $200 down payment. In northwest D.C., several targets said they were told to go to WalMart and transfer $200 via MoneyGram in order to be paid in full from individuals who identified themselves as being with the U.S. Treasury Department or the U.S. Federal Grant Department, a nonexistent agency.
“Scams target geographic areas with pitches that are timely and fitting to the area. They go after people who may be more familiar with the idea of a government grant in the hopes of tricking them into thinking their scam is legitimate,” added Ms. Owen of the BBB’s regional office, who said the scam that has been hitting the region for some time now.
Bureau statistics suggest 665 government grant scams were logged during all of 2015, including 6 spotted by people who reside directly in the District; the D.C.-Baltimore megalopolis hosted 18 such victims in all — three more than in New York City.
Overall, Virginia residents reported nearly seven scams per 100,000 people, while Maryland saw fewer than two scams per 100,000 residents, ConsumerProtect.com reported; the District averaged three for each 100,000 residents, below the national average of four for every 100,000.
Nationwide, fake government grant schemes placed number eight on the group’s list of the most common scams, but outranked all other reports placed with the Bureau by D.C. residents between February and December.
• Andrew Blake can be reached at ablake@washingtontimes.com.
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