Scam Alert! There are NO Obama Stimulus Checks OR Grants for Small Businesses

The ASU Small Business and Technology Development Center just received an e-mail from our Small Business Development Center National Information Clearinghouse (SBDCNet) concerning a new scam that has hit the Internet promising small businesses and individuals Obama Stimulus Checks AND Grants as part of the Federal Stimulus Package.

For $95 for the first month and $73 per month thereafter you can purchase "FREE" GRANT SOFTWARE" to get your share of the action. If you follow the ads you find pages with questionable advertising practices like fake blogs with fake comments and a fake "ads by google" all of these are attempts to relieve you of your money but you will never see any grant money or stimulus check. The economy has been hard on many small businesses in our area without being taken advantage of through this scam.

I am attaching a link to our SBDCNet website that provides the details about the scam at Scam Alert! There are No Obama Stimulus Checks or Grants that will provide you with more information.

To date the new stimulus bill DOES NOT include any tax refunds like we saw last spring/summer. What the new stimulus bill WILL DO IS put more money into existing programs to build infrastructure. Yes there will be some new grant money in the package BUT most of it is going to existing programs and to state or local organizations that already have grants or grant programs. Bottom line is that there NO GRANTS for small business start up or bail out.

The Arkansas Small Business and Technology Development Center Network is in the process of developing seminars around the state for small businesses to learn about legitimate opportunities for small businesses under the stimulus package. We anticipate rolling these seminars out in the next four to six weeks once the details of how the stimulus package monies will be allocated has been determined. Unlike the SCAMS these informational seminars WILL BE free of charge.

If you would like more information about these seminars as they are developed subscribe to our newsletter or send me an e-mail at hlawrenc@astate.edu and we will make sure you are informed about these as they come out.

Please feel free to forward this to any other small businesses you may know and invite them to sign up to our newsletter to receive updates on assistance and other small business news at it comes out.

Sincerely,
Herb Lawrence ASU SBTDC Center Director