Trust record
Before You Pay
Checklist reviewed for edition 2026-08, dated .
Pause before money or a project commitment moves
Never pay someone who guarantees a government grant, an award, or special access. Do not order equipment, sign a contract, begin work, hire a covered worker, or start training until the real administrator confirms any required sequence.
Verify the route
- Confirm the administrator. Ask which agency, utility, lender, college, workforce partner, or other organization controls the program. A listing by another organization is not enough.
- Confirm the official domain. Reach it from a known agency or administrator page and compare the full address before entering information. A seal, logo, or .gov-like styling is not proof that a page is official.
- Confirm every deadline and consequence. Check opening, purchase, installation, completion, submission, spending, and statutory dates before relying on the lead.
- Confirm the preapproval sequence. Ask what must be approved before equipment is ordered, a contract is signed, work begins, a worker is hired, or training starts.
- Challenge every payment request. Confirm fees with the real administrator using a separately verified route. Do not send gift cards, cryptocurrency, wire transfers, or cash to unlock a grant or application.
- Confirm the adviser role. An SBDC adviser, tax professional, accessibility specialist, contractor, lender, or consultant may help, but that role does not make the person the program administrator or guarantee an award.
- Separate the program page from the application. A visible page is not proof that intake or funds are current.
- Name the mechanism. A loan must be repaid. A tax effect arrives later. An assessment or adviser supplies expertise. None should be sold as grant cash.
- Ask about stacking in writing. Do not add incentives into a total unless each administrator confirms the same costs can be combined.
Before you share a tax ID, bank information, payroll record, or other business data—or pay a fee—complete these checks through routes you reached independently.