Is there a "secret stimulus" that provides $185,000 to U.S. homeowners? No, that's not true: The "benefit to homeowners" is just a marketing ploy to get home-owning online users to follow links and provide their personal information. Schemes like this are a common way to collect information about people that can be sold to companies that then provide pre-sifted lists of home owners to companies.
The claim appeared in a post published on Facebook on July 22, 2023. The post included a video that began with narration saying:
There is a secret stimulus in all 50 states for homeowners that is giving $185,000 benefit to homeowners that nobody is talking about. Those who register will receive their check back within three to five days.
The caption was an alleged testimonial by a person named "Richard A. Henderson" from Dallas, Texas, who claimed that the program was featured on CNN.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Wed Jul 26 15:25:23 2023 UTC)
The link included in the post led users to a website without a .gov domain name. Instead, the link leads users to a webpage that asked users whether they live in the "Unites [sic] States." A screenshot of the webpage is below:
(Source: myfinancepoint.com screenshot taken on Wed Jul 26 15:38:24 2023 UTC)
The bottom of the webpage included text stating that it was "Brought to You by Consumers Pronto." Lead Stories searched for "Consumers Pronto" and found this website saying that its purpose is "Connecting consumers with the best products to create personalized help to save big!" Clicking on any of the "brands" the company offers -- such as "Medicare Pronto," "Healthcare Pronto" and "Debt Pronto" -- leads users to questionnaires that supposedly check their eligibility for government assistance.
When Lead Stories searched for more information on a "stimulus" that offers up to $185,000 in homeowners' assistance, we did not find any results on the U.S. government's official guide to housing help nor, more specifically, to home-buying assistance.
Lead Stories also searched for the testimonial by "Richard A. Henderson" included in the caption of the post on Facebook that made the claim. Using Google search, we did not locate any other instances of that testimonial . We also found another instance of the post on the same Facebook user's page that said that the program was featured on CNBC rather than CNN.
Lead Stories regularly debunks claims about supposed government benefits. You can find many of those fact checks here.
