The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is a well-known, legitimate charity founded by Microsoft creator Bill Gates and his wife. It does not give random grants to people, however since 2015 a scam based on that premise has been victimizing people. Below is a copy of an email that is presently being circulated. As with many similar scams, when someone responds to the email they are told that they need to pay a fee in order to receive their prize. One recent victim paid $11,000 to the scammers before she realized that it was a scam.
“DONATION
When Tuesday, 06 February 2018
04:30 AM to 05:30 AM
(GMT) Greenwich Mean Time – Dublin / Edinburgh / Lisbon / London
WhereWrite to my private email **********************@gmail.com
Message Welcome to Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), also known as the Gates Foundation, is a private foundation founded by me, I, Bill Gates and my wife Melinda Gates have decided to donate $1,400,000.00 to randomly selected individuals worldwide from the funds we Mapped out to help people and you are among the lucky individual, i saw your profile on Microsoft email owners list and i picked you, Kindly get back to me at your earliest convenience, so I know your email address is valid. Thanks Bill Gates”
TIPS
Lottery and sweepstakes scams continue to snare people because too many of us get blinded by our own greed to remember that while it is difficult to win any lottery, it is impossible to win one that you have never entered.  Further, no legitimate lottery ever will ask you to pay anything to claim your prize.  While income taxes are owed on lottery winnings, those taxes are either deducted from your prize before you receive your prize as with state sponsored lotteries or you receive the entire prize and are responsible on your own for paying the income taxes on your winnings.  No legitimate lottery or sweepstakes ever collects income tax payments from lottery winners.
Another telltale indication that this is a scam is the poor grammar used in the email, which often is an indication that the scam is originating in a country where English is not the primary language.
The real Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has a page on their website where they warn you about the various scams linked to their foundation. https://www.gatesfoundation.org/media-center/press-releases/2012/11/reporting-email-scams
If you are not a subscriber to Scamicide.com and would like to receive daily emails with the Scam of the day, all you need to do is to go to the bottom of the initial page of http://www.scamicide.com and click on the tab that states “Sign up for this blog.”