OKLAHOMA CITY, (KOKH) — Veteran-owned businesses across Oklahoma are being targeted by a new scam seeking personal information, according to the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs.
Public Information Officer Daron Hoggatt said the agency has heard from numerous business owners who received an email claiming the Oklahoma veteran-owned business program had approved a “grant bonus” and urging recipients to review and submit information to receive funds.
The information in the email is a scam, he said.
“We have received, roughly, 95 calls and emails about it. So it’s definitely hitting a bunch of them out there,” Hoggatt said.
Hoggatt said there are more than 2,500 veteran-owned businesses in Oklahoma. He also said the ODVA does not provide grants to veteran-owned businesses.
“We actually don’t have grants to hand out to them. However, if they were, we would, we would send that out through our gov delivery system, which is what most government agencies use. So it’s going to come from an address that’s, that should be recognizable to them,” he said.
Hoggatt said there are indicators that the message is a scam, including urgent language and several errors in the actual email.
“One is it was saying that update this information immediately in order to qualify for a bonus. And when you start looking at the business information, the business address had an extra digit somewhere in it. The business name was misspelled. The phone number had an extra digit in it,” he said.
He said legitimate emails from the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs would come from a .gov email address.
His advice to anyone who receives the message is not to click any links.
“Don’t do anything to it, but maybe report it as spam or delete it. Definitely don’t open the links that are there. You can even call us and ask us some questions if you like. But really, that’s the best option at this point is just delete it or report it as spam. But do not, do not click on the link,” Hoggatt said.
Hoggatt said the scammers are likely trying to obtain personal information.
He encouraged business owners with questions to contact the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs to verify whether a message is legitimate.
