Beware of Paycheck Protection Program Scams

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was created to help small businesses pay their employees and for other necessary costs like rent and utilities. Unfortunately, fraudsters have already begun targeting small business owners during these economically difficult times. Be on the lookout for grant fraud, loan fraud and phishing (sending emails that look official, but are not.)

Grants

• SBA does not initiate contact on either 7a or Disaster loans or grants. If you are proactively contacted by someone claiming to be from the SBA, suspect fraud.

Loans

• If you are contacted by someone promising to get approval of an SBA loan, but requires any payment up front or offers a high-interest bridge loan in the interim, suspect fraud.
• If you are contacted by someone promising that if you pay a fee, he/she can get you a PPP loan, suspect fraud. The PPP is only available through a certified SBA Lender. NSB is one such lender.

Phishing

• If you are in the process of applying for an SBA loan and receive email correspondence asking for personal and private information, ensure that the referenced application number is consistent with the actual application number.
• Look out for phishing attacks/scams utilizing the SBA logo. These may be attempts to obtain your personally identifiable information (PII), to obtain personal banking access, or to install ransomware/malware on your computer.
• Any email communication from SBA will come from accounts ending with sba.gov.
• The presence of an SBA logo on a webpage does not guarantee the information is accurate or endorsed by SBA. Please cross-reference any information you receive with information available at https://www.sba.gov.

Report Fraud

Report any suspected fraud to the SBA’s Office of the Inspector General’s Hotline at 800-767-0385 or via their online complaint process.