Did the U.S. government announce a new cost-of-living stimulus, offering a $1,000 "emergency relief card" to every citizen as of January 6, 2025? No, that's not true: This post included a link to a non-government website that asked for personal information for entry into a "sweepstakes," a tactic used in scams. A video in the post included clips of President-elect Donald Trump, implying his involvement in such a new stimulus measure. As of this writing, he was not yet in office and could not have authorized a new cost-of-living stimulus. Also, the IRS did not made any announcement about such a program, which would be major news if true.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on Facebook on January 2, 2025. It opened:
This new Giveback scheme isn't going to last...
Claim it now before it ends.
Tap below to claim it today.👇
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of writing:
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Jan 6 21:03:24 2025 UTC)
The post's video shows Trump having signed an unidentified document but the post does not offer evidence to prove Trump had signed or endorsed anything related to such a purported measure, or that there was another stimulus check available to Americans.
The post linked to a website (archived here) that supposedly offered a cash reward for completing a short survey. That website is not a .gov official-level domain. Here is what that website looked like:
(Source: chance34.prize-stash.com screenshot taken on Mon Jan 6 17:10:02 2024 UTC)
The fine print at the bottom of that image had a link to its "Official Rules" (archived here). Providing personal information would get entry to a "sweepstakes" to win $1,000 in exchange for that personal information, rather than a stimulus offered to every citizen. Although the video states "no personal information" was needed for the purported stimulus payment, the "sweepstakes" entry sought personal information from address to phone number to email to medical situations.
By including the video clips of Trump along narration such as "We've rushed through, a new cost-of-living stimulus ... it only passed as a temporary measure ..." the post implied governmental action and Trump involvement. But the post appeared nearly three weeks before Trump's scheduled inauguration on January 20, 2025.
An official announcement of such a grant to every U.S. citizen would be major news, but a search of Google News (archived here) did not bring up corroborating results from reliable news sources.
According to the IRS (archived here), three stimulus checks were issued during the COVID pandemic: one in 2020 and two in 2021. As of this writing, no fourth stimulus check has been announced.
Lead Stories contacted the IRS and U.S. Treasury for comment. An update will be provided if a response is received.
The federal government has warned Americans that it "does not offer 'free money'" and that such claims are often scams.
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Lead Stories has debunked other claims related to fake stimulus check claims, which can be read here.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims concerning scams can be found here.
