The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) 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 they have received an NEA grant and must provide seed money to an account to release the grant funds.
Furthermore, the perpetrators state the amount released by the targeted individual increases depending on the amount that the individual puts forward. The requested money might be framed as a processing fee or delivery fee.
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 NEA who asks you to send money in order to receive a grant, please report this to the NEA's Office of Inspector General via email at oig@arts.gov or call 202-682-5402.
