The U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) made an announcement on July 14 to make the public aware of fraudulent social media profiles, email accounts, text messages and phone numbers that attempt to impersonate or otherwise associate themselves with the CDFI Fund.
Although the precise platforms and messages vary, these imposters are known to provide false CDFI Fund employee and contact information, false links to a website alleged to be the CDFI Fund website and a false telephone number. Scammers have also been documented using the CDFI Fund’s official logo and certified CDFI seal to make their communications appear legitimate.
In some instances, scammers have contacted an individual asserting that the individual has been awarded a grant or a similar sum of money and requests personal information or a sum of money as a condition to “release” the funds. The U.S. Department of Treasury and the CDFI Fund emphasize that they do not administer its programs in this manner.
The CDFI Fund urges the recipients of such calls, text messages and emails to be extremely wary of such a scheme requiring advance payment for a later promise of funds. Members of the public are also urged to exercise caution when clicking on links falsely attributed to the CDFI Fund.
The official CDFI Fund website is www.cdfifund.gov.