It is not surprising that Facebook has been a favorite medium for scammers.  Its very popularity and the fact that on Facebook you are communicating with your friends is reason enough for scammers to use Facebook as a platform for scams.  The latest Facebook related scam starts with a private message  that appears to come from one of your friends telling you that he or she has won a huge amount of money and that you too are part of a group that has won this prize.  In the version currently circulating the source of the funds is the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Grant.  There is no organization entitled the Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance Grant, however the Catalog of  Federal Domestic Assistance is a  real website  maintained by the federal government that provides information about a wide array of governmental assistance programs.  In the private message sent by the scammer, the intended victim is told that in order to claim his or her share of the prize, they must wire money to pay for taxes and clearance fees.

Of course, the entire thing is a scam, so once the victim has wired the money, he or she never receives any prize.  The private message, which appears to come from a friend is actually coming from the Facebook account of a friend whose Facebook account was hacked.

TIPS

It is hard to win any lottery or contest.  It is impossible to win one that you have never entered.  Facebook accounts and email accounts are relatively easy for a skilled cybercriminal to hack so whenever you receive an email or message urging you to click on a link, provide personal information or, as in this scam, send money, you should always be skeptical and confirm that the communication is legitimate before responding. You should be particularly skeptical of  any request to wire money or provide a cash card number because once funds have been transferred in this fashion, they are impossible to retrieve.

It also is important to remember that no legitimate lottery requires that you pay them fees to claim your prize or pay them the taxes due on the winnings.  Legitimate lotteries either deduct the income taxes from your prize or they pay you the entire amount of the prize and you are responsible for paying the taxes on the winnings to the IRS on your regular 1040.