The Pierce County Sheriff’s Office was made aware of a scam involving social media. On 12-6-2018 a Pierce County resident reported to the Sheriff’s Office that they were contacted via social media (facebook) by a friend and received a message about FLA grants. Upon contacting the friend it was determined that the facebook account had been compromised by a third party in a scam effort.

FLA grants are a scam involving the request for a monetary payment to receive a grant settlement. This is a common example: the government is rewarding people that pay their taxes on time and you are eligible for a FLA grant, to receive your grant pay a fee of $1850.00 to receive a $150,000.00 grant.

The ND attorney general’s office was contacted and is aware of this scam. The ND attorney general’s office offers this advice:

– Scam artists pretend to be people we want to trust, like government officials, law enforcement, bank staff or even family members; Never give out personal information or send money in response to an unexpected contact, no matter how urgent it may seem.

– Don’t trust your Caller ID – it’s not who you think it is. Readily available technology makes it easy to create a fake name and number to display on Caller ID or as the “sender” of a text message.

– If you are asked to send or wire money, or to buy prepaid cash cards, stop! A legitimate government agency or business will never ask you to wire money, buy prepaid cards (including prepaid gift cards such as iTunes, Best Buy, etc.), or deposit money into another person’s account. As soon as you complete the transaction or read off the numbers from the back of the prepaid card, your money is gone. It is not possible to get that money back. – Hang up, every time. Don’t “press 1” to be taken off a call list; all it does is confirm that you listened to the message, which will result in more calls.

Please report all scams to the ND Attorney General’s Consumer Protection division at 1-800-472-2600.

-Pierce County

Sheriff’s Office