AUGUSTA — Maine Attorney General Janet Mills wants residents to look out for a fraudulent government grant scam that is targeting residents via social media.

Mills says the scammer typically poses as a government official, sometimes even falsely using the name of a real office or public official. She says they then ask for a processing fee in exchange for a free monetary grant that doesn’t actually exist.

Mills says government agencies do not conduct business or financial transactions via social media networks and never demand a payment up front. She encourages residents to report potential scams to the social media network as well as to authorities such as the attorney general’s office’s consumer protection division.