Salem woman warns of social media scam

Scam says winners would receive thousands in grant money

SALEM, Va. – A woman wants to warn people about a scam that promised her thousands of dollars in grant money.

The woman is from Salem but wants to stay anonymous. She thought she was getting the chance to win $80,000 through a program with Facebook.

The person promising the money said she first had to pay $870 for court fees.

“If I had the money I might have done it," she said. "I think it’s awful to scam people like that. I really do.”

Julie Wheeler, the CEO of the Better Business Bureau in southwest Virginia, says this is definitely a scam and people should never have to pay money to receive money.

"The scam artists find the easiest way to get to people and this is one where our guard is down. We think this is this nice social media where we can keep in touch," she said. "But they’ve found another way to use it for financial gain.”

Wheeler says if a social media account doesn’t have many friends, followers, or pictures, the person might not be who they say they are, and people should be aware of cloned accounts that look like they belong to people you know.