The government is offering a $5,800 subsidy, and “every American qualifies for it.”
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No, the government is not offering a $5,800 subsidy to all Americans
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The government is not offering a $5,800 subsidy to all Americans. The linked website is not affiliated with the government.
A Facebook post urges you to avoid one scam and entices you to fall for another.
"Look, those ads with those celebrities, they’re deepfakes, you guys, they’re not real," said the man in a May 9 Facebook post that has been viewed about 50,000 times.
"What you’re looking for is a subsidy. The subsidies the government is giving away, it’s $5,800 of a subsidy, and there’s no qualifications for it. Every American qualifies for it. All you gotta do is hit the link in the description below."
(Screenshot from Facebook)
This post was flagged as part of Meta’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram.)
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We hate to break it to you, but we clicked the link and found it won’t lead you to no-strings-attached $5,800. PolitiFact has previously debunked similar claims.
The link in the Facebook post leads to a webpage headlined "Congress Announces $5,200 - $6,300 Subsidy Available To All Americans." But a search of LegiScan, a website that tracks congressional bills, shows there’s no such legislation.
The website requests your age, asks whether you earn less than $50,000 annually and whether you have health insurance. It then prompts you to call a number to claim a subsidy and a zero-cost health plan.
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The government does have federal assistance programs, such as for food and housing, but those are accessed through official government websites.
The link in the Facebook post is affiliated with usabenefitsdaily.com, a URL that has been connected to another fake scheme made to look like a government program. A disclaimer on the page says that neither the website nor the insurance plans it directs you to are endorsed by the U.S. government or the federal Medicare program.
The Federal Trade Commission offers tips to avoid government grant scammers and how to report them; one red flag related to scammers is that they "make big promises" about paying for expenses including household bills and other personal needs.
But there’s no $5,800 subsidy that every American qualifies for. We rate that claim Pants on Fire!
Our Sources
Facebook post (archived), May 9, 2024
PolitiFact, Scam alert: U.S. government isn’t giving out $6,400 subsidies through Inflation Reduction Act update, Dec. 8, 2023
PolitiFact, Congress has not passed a $6,400 subsidy for low-income Americans, Jan. 19, 2024
LegiScan search, May 17, 2024
Wisconsin Watch, Is the government promising $6,400 monthly health care payments to everyone?, Jan. 23, 2024
USA.gov, Avoid "free money" from the government scams, accessed May 17, 2024
Federal Trade Commission, Government Grant Scams, accessed May 17, 2024
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No, the government is not offering a $5,800 subsidy to all Americans
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