This week we bring you news about one fraudulent charity that allegedly stole a quarter of a billion dollars from children in need and one potential food stamps phishing scam that you need to watch out for.

Feeding Our Future Scam

Headlines were made when an organization in Minnesota that claimed to improve people’s access to healthy food was exposed as a scam.

To date, 49 people, including the organization’s founder, Aimee Bock, have been charged in connection with the scheme — which is alleged to have taken over $250 million from the Federal Child Nutrition Program. This money was intended to help feed less fortunate children throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is alleged that Bock and her coconspirators submitted massive amounts of false documentation, including fraudulent meal count sheets, false invoices, and attendance rosters filled in with fake names, and used the stolen money to purchase expensive jewelry, luxury cars, houses, and a coastal resort property abroad.

The organization had also set up its website to receive donations through GoFundMe and PayPal — although fortunately both of these donation methods don’t currently work, as you can see from the screenshots below.

To read the Department of Justice’s full post about this fraud scheme, click here.

Food Stamps Potential Scam

This week we detected a possible phishing scam looking to exploit people eligible to receive food stamps. The following suspicious text message was sent out to people across the U.S.:

• Snap notice: you are still approved for $1,000 in monthly food stamp benefits! file by 9/21 to get your benefits: {URL}

The message contains a link (removed in the example above) that leads to www.foodstampregisterusa[.]com. This is a newly registered website, having only come online on July 28^th of this year.

The website’s age, coupled with the suspicious message, are both indicators that this is a likely scam. If you come across this website or similar ones, it is advisable not to submit any personal information.

Combat Scams With ScamCheck

Trend Micro ScamCheck is a browser extension and mobile app for detecting scams, phishing attacks, malware, and dangerous links — and it’s FREE!

Check out this page for more information on ScamCheck.

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