The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), the largest financial assistance bill to date, includes provisions to help small businesses. Fraudsters have already begun targeting small business owners during these economically difficult times. Be on the lookout for grant fraud, loan fraud, and phishing.
Scam and Fraud Scheme Advisory List
1. SBA does not initiate contact on either 7a or Disaster loans. If you are proactively contacted by someone claiming to be from the SBA, suspect fraud. (The SC SBDC will only reach out to you if you have at some point signed up as a client. All communication will be sent from your assigned consultant.)
2. SBA does not provide grants to small businesses. SBA provides guarantees to lenders to encourage them to make loans to small businesses. If you are contacted via social media about a SBA grant program for small businesses, suspect fraud.
3. 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. The SC SBDC consulting services are always at no charge to you.
4. 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. (The SC SBDC will never need access to your personal banking.)
5. If you are in the process of applying for an SBA loan and receive email correspondence asking for PII, ensure that the referenced application number is consistent with the actual application number.
6. SBA limits the fees a broker can charge a borrower to 3% for loans $50,000 or less and 2% for loans $50,000 to $1,000,000 with an additional ¼% on amounts over $1,000,000. Any attempt to charge more than these fees is inappropriate.
7. Any email communication from SBA will come from accounts ending with .gov.
8. The presence of an SBA logo on a webpage does not guaranty the information is accurate or endorsed by SBA. Please cross-reference any information you receive with information available at sba.gov.(https://www.sba.gov/)
9. If you have a question about getting a SBA disaster loan, call 800.659.2955 or send an email to disastercustomerservice@sba.gov.(mailto:disastercustomerservice@sba.gov)
10. If you have questions about other SBA lending products, call SBA’s Answer Desk at 800.827.5722 or send an email to answerdesk@sba.gov.(mailto:answerdesk@sba.gov)
Report Fraud:
Report any suspected fraud to OIG’s Hotline at 800-767-0385 or online at, https://www.sba.gov/about-sba/oversight-advocacy/office-inspector-general/office-inspector-general-hotline.(https://www.sba.gov/about-sba/oversight-advocacy/office-inspector-general/office-inspector-general-hotline)