Protect yourself from online scams
We want to help protect our communities from online scammers that attempt to impersonate the Bush Foundation.
Here are some important tips that can help you identify a scam and keep your accounts and information safe. We encourage you to share this with others you know who will benefit from this information.
- The Foundation will never ask you to pay a fee, send us money, purchase or verify a gift card, or make a donation to us.
- Do not feel pressured to provide your personal information, such as a credit card number, account password or bank account information. The Foundation does not require payments to receive our grants.
- Be suspicious of false urgency. Scammers try to create a sense of urgency to get you to act without verifying what they’re asking. Pause and take your time if someone tries to tell you that have to act now.
- The Foundation provides grants to people and organizations that submit applications through our website. We do not randomly surprise people with a grant. Anyone receiving a grant from us will have been in contact with us prior to payment.
- If you have applied for a grant with us, the contact information you provide in your application is what we use to contact you.
- We do not use social media, direct messages or text messages to notify people of grant awards, collect personal information or ask for payment.
- If you are the slightest bit unsure of information being requested, we encourage you to end the call or communication and reach out to us for verification at staff@bushfoundation.org or 651-379-2249. You also may contact our staff directly.
We strongly urge you to report it to your local police and visit the Minnesota Attorney General’s website for more information and resources. The Foundation is unable to retrieve stolen funds from scammers so it is important to report these crimes.
If someone claims to work for us and wants to send you money in exchange for a fee and your personal information, take the following steps:
- Report fake accounts to Facebook or Instagram.
- Block fake accounts and phone numbers.
- Report them to the Federal Trade Commission, which investigates this kind of fraud. You can call the FTC’s Consumer Response Center at 1-877-FTC-HELP (1-877-382-4357) or file your complaint online.
If you believe a friend or family member’s account was hacked, please notify them.