April 29, 2004 | Read Time: 3 minutes
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, in Seattle, is warning nonprofit groups about e-mail scams that use the foundation’s name — and the lure of big grants — to try to swindle charities.
The e-mail that prompted the foundation to issue the alert asked the charity that received it to put up money to qualify for a “direct-impact grant,” says Greg Shaw, a spokesman for the foundation. He declined to say how much money was requested or what method of payment was specified. But Mr. Shaw noted that in addition to using the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation name, the e-mail also included the name of an employee who does work at the foundation, but was not connected to the scam.
Mr. Shaw says that other foundations have had similar problems with con artists using their names in connection with Internet scams.
“If anyone receives an e-mail requesting that money be put forth as a condition of receiving a grant, you should be circumspect of that,” advises Mr. Shaw. “Let the foundation in question know, and certainly don’t volunteer any information.”
The World Land Trust, in Halesworth, England, fell for the scheme initially, but realized it was a scam before it lost any money.
The conservation organization received an e-mail, purportedly from the Gates Foundation, that said the foundation would like to consider the World Land Trust for the next round of its direct-impact grant program. It asked for a description of the charity’s projects, recent financial statements, and the group’s Internet address — “all the sorts of things that a genuine fund-giving body asks a charity,” says John A. Burton, the trust’s chief executive officer.
The message went on to explain that the foundation would only accept applications for the program at its “new” e-mail address, because it had been overwhelmed by the number of requests it had received from people seeking grants via the foundation’s telephone and fax numbers and its previous e-mail address.
The World Land Trust put together a proposal, sent it to the e-mail address listed in the message, and received an acknowledgment saying that its grant request had been received. Two weeks later, the trust received an e-mail saying that the foundation had been awarded a $5-million grant.
“Now, of course, at that moment, the penny dropped,” says Mr. Burton, “because nobody in their right mind would give you $5-million with absolutely no personal contact.”
He says the e-mail award letter explained that the grant would be distributed through an online bank called the Anglo Trust Bank, at which the charity would have to open an account with at least $10,000. Mr. Burton checked out the Web site for the bank, which he says looked legitimate — until he started looking for a phone number or address and could find only a post office box in Swindon, England. He then called the Metropolitan Police Fraud Squad, who, according to Mr. Burton, told him that the e-mail purporting to be from the Gates Foundation was a known scam.
In retrospect, Mr. Burton thinks the fact that the e-mail messages came from a Hotmail account, bgates_grant@hotmail.com, should have tipped his organization off to the scheme. But at the same time, he says, the approach was much more sophisticated and convincing than other scams he’s seen.
For a small charity like the World Land Trust, it’s virtually impossible to get through to the right person at a large foundation like Gates, says Mr. Burton. “This is why it was plausible, in a way,” he says. “You know that with a big foundation like that, you’ve got to wait for them to come to you.”
For more information: Go to http://www.gatesfoundation.org/aboutus.
