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  • 2023-01-06 (xsd:date)
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  • This online offer of a $5,000 stimulus loan is too good to be true because it’s not (en)
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  • The offer proclaimed on Facebook seemed too good to be true: Apply for a stimulus loan, and $5,000 could be yours! Spoiler alert: This Facebook post was a scam. It featured a photo of President Joe Biden and said: With rising inflation and cost of living its no surprise that many of us could use another stimulus loan...I applied and was approved for $5,000 in minutes! And I don’t even have a good credit... If you or your family could use some extra cash — you need to try this. Tap the ‘Apply Now’ button to find out how it works! This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram. ) The apply now button on the post led to a site called American Funds Assistance. The site says it collects personal information to help them obtain personal, business and other types of loans from various funding sources. The site may be offering to connect people with lenders, but they aren’t stimulus loans from the government. In fact, there is no mention on the site of a government program. A U.S. Treasury Department spokesperson, Jenna Valle-Riestra, told PolitiFact that there are no new stimulus loans like that described in the post, and that any type of program like that would require legislation from Congress. False claims of government loans or grants have spread on social media in the past and have been debunked by fact-checkers. In May, PolitiFact found that a video promising $50,000 in relief from the government actually sent people to a website offering loans from private lenders. There was no new government benefit. In July, Agence France-Presse debunked another false claim, promising Biden stimulus loans of up to $40,000. In August, FactCheck.org called a similar claim a marketing ploy. Our ruling A Facebook post promises stimulus loans of $5,000. But according to the U.S. Treasury, there is no such program. The website that links to this Facebook post offers loans from various lenders. There is no indication on the site that the government is involved in these loans in any way. We rate this False. (en)
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