Scam alert

The Department of Social Services has received reports of an email scam where a scammer posing as a representative of the department has emailed members of the public offering a $120,000 grant under the Social Enterprise Development Initiative program. The scammer requests the victim’s contact details, and then sends through a false ‘grant certificate’ to notify them they have been selected, which includes a falsified signature of a senior department officer. To gain access to the payment, victims are then told they need to pay a $250 fee to unlock a debit card.

What to do if you are contacted by a scam attempt?

The Department does not contact members of the public through social media or email to offer grant opportunities.  Legitimate grant opportunities are published on GrantConnect (link is external) at www.grants.gov.au (link is external). Legitimate grants will never require the recipient to pay a fee to access the amounts, and debit cards are not used to disburse grant payments.

If you are contacted by one of these scam attempts, do not provide any personal or financial information.  You can report it to the relevant government department via contact details on their website. For the Department of Social Services, contact fraud@dss.gov.au (link sends e-mail).

For further advice on scams is available from the National Anti-Scam Centre: Scamwatch