{"id":11546,"date":"2021-06-21T14:24:50","date_gmt":"2021-06-21T18:24:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newprocontainers.com\/blog\/?p=11546"},"modified":"2021-06-21T14:25:21","modified_gmt":"2021-06-21T18:25:21","slug":"avoiding-sba-loan-scams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/oldm2.newprocontainers.com\/blog\/avoiding-sba-loan-scams\/","title":{"rendered":"Avoiding SBA Loan Scams"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>What makes an economic disaster even darker is when scam artists use detrimental situations like this to their advantage.\u00a0 It happened to victims of Hurricane Katrina with imposters claiming to be part of the government <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fema.gov\/\">FEMA<\/a> program, and now scammers are posing to be from the Small Business Administration offering loans.\u00a0With the majority of loans and applications conducted online, it\u2019s even easier to deceive a savvy business owner with a legitimate looking website, especially when there are many different types of disaster relief loans being offered through the government, private banks and business entities like QuickBooks and Square.\u00a0 So how can you tell what loans are legitimate, versus SBA loan scams?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Agents Claiming to be the SBA<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If an agent of the SBA calls you stating your business is eligible for a disaster loan, guaranteed to be approved and you never submitted an application on their government website, this is an imposter. The SBA doesn\u2019t make unsolicited phone calls to give out loans, won\u2019t guarantee any loan amount and won\u2019t ask for your personal information over the phone like your full social security number in order to pull up a credit check. And, if they tell you, you can apply for the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sba.gov\/funding-programs\/loans\/covid-19-relief-options\/paycheck-protection-program\">PPP funding<\/a> (Paycheck Protection Plan), definitely be wary since those loans are no longer available.\u00a0 For now, only existing PPP borrowers can apply for additional funds or for loan forgiveness.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Check for SBA Email Addresses<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>In order to get emails from the SBA, you have to sign up on the government website and give permission to receive their latest information and programs.\u00a0 If you didn\u2019t take this step and start to find them in your inbox, offering or guaranteeing financial aid, be very cautious before clicking on any links or submitting information.\u00a0 Scammers have almost perfected creating legitimate looking emails and websites using the same logos and wording.\u00a0 Foreign hackers can be spotted if the wording reads too formal or you find weird grammar or incorrect punctuation. Another easy way to spot a fake is to check the last part of the email or website. An official SBA agent\u2019s email will always end with @sba.gov.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Third Party Offers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>As a business owner, you\u2019ve probably received tons of emails and spam calls to apply for disaster relief or capital funding.\u00a0 Some of these offers I\u2019ve been receiving are from financial institutions that I bank with and know well. Others are from out-of-state lending companies that are flooding my inbox or leaving weekly voicemails.\u00a0 While most of these solicitations are probably real businesses, the more aggressive they are, the more fees and interest rates they charge.\u00a0 You should never pay up-front fees or high interest bridge loans with funding backed by the SBA.\u00a0 Their website contains a chart of interest fees, lenders can legally charge depending on the type of loan and none were higher than 10 percent.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">If you are a victim of SBA loan scams<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>If you discover you\u2019ve been a victim of SBA loan scams, there isn\u2019t much you can do once those funds have been transferred.\u00a0 Most of these con artists are out of the country and there\u2019s little legal recourse.\u00a0 When I first discovered I had been grossly overcharged for a service, I was able to call my bank to stop payment on a check that was still in transit.\u00a0 But even then, my bank couldn\u2019t guarantee they would be able to catch the check.\u00a0 So, I transferred the majority of my business checking balance into my business savings.\u00a0 Then, I had to cancel my overdraft protection since any check that didn\u2019t clear, the bank would automatically use my savings to cover it.\u00a0 It was a big hassle, but well worth not losing a few thousand dollars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you\u2019re in a vulnerable position and feeling like your world is collapsing around you, it\u2019s easy to be blind to the little red flag warnings.&nbsp; Feeling desperate, I made a bad business decision over-paying a contractor because I didn\u2019t take time to do my homework. Verifying licenses, corporate addresses, getting references, researching owner background and comparable costs online would have saved me a lot of frustration and money I can\u2019t afford to lose.&nbsp; This was a good reminder that spending the extra time to cross-check information from reliable sources such as the SBA, the Better Business Bureau and talking to bank representatives you trust, will be worth the effort and can save you from making an unfortunate business decision.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What makes an economic disaster even darker is when scam artists use detrimental situations like this to their advantage.\u00a0 It happened to victims of Hurricane Katrina with imposters claiming to be part of the government FEMA program, and now scammers are posing to be from the Small Business Administration offering loans.\u00a0With the majority of loans [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":10820,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"twitterCardType":"","cardImageID":0,"cardImage":"","cardTitle":"","cardDesc":"","cardImageAlt":"","cardPlayer":"","cardPlayerWidth":0,"cardPlayerHeight":0,"cardPlayerStream":"","cardPlayerCodec":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[82],"tags":[798,221,189,820,1038],"class_list":["post-11546","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-operations","tag-business-owner","tag-interior-landscaping-business","tag-landscaping","tag-plantscape","tag-plantscapers"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.6 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Avoiding SBA Loan Scams<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Online loans and applications are avenues scammers use to deceive a savvy business owners. 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