SBA Scams targeting business customers

Watch out for Small Business Administration (SBA) Scams!

Phone scams, Business Email Compromise, and Check Fraud are common ‘vectors of choice’ for fraudsters, and these scams are now being used to take advantage of business customers during the COVID-19 Pandemic. These scams are dubbed coronavirus scams or ‘Small Business Administration (SBA) loan scams.’ These scams target victims, often those who received SBA Payroll Protection Program (PPP) Loans, with scammers seeking to obtain personal identifiable information (often called PII). Once they have your PII, they may attempt to access your bank account or other related cyber threats.

It is important to never give out any personal information about your financial accounts or loans to anyone other than your trusted banker.

Please note that NBT Bank has not contracted with any third parties to reach out to individuals or businesses to collect information regarding stimulus payments, SBA PPP Loan Forgiveness or the SBA’s Economic Injury Disaster Loan Program.

Examples of SBA loan scams may include:

• Offers to process an SBA loan for you;
• Phishing attacks utilizing the SBA logo;
• Impersonating callers or spoofed emails posing as a lender or financial institution and request the routing number, account number, or credit card number that you want to use to deposit your stimulus payment;
• Emails about SBA loans that do not originate from SBA sites.
  • NBT Bank will only send emails from the below email addresses in relation to SBA loans (NBTCares4Biz, NBTPayrollProtection, [email protected], [email protected])

These scenarios may be attempts to obtain your private information or that of your business for nefarious purposes. If you have provided any personal or financial information please contact NBT Bank at 1-800-NBT-BANK or at [email protected].

If you suspect an email is associated with a fraud scam targeting the SBA, report it to the Office of Inspector General’s Hotline at 800-767-0385 or online at https://www.sba.gov/COVIDfraudalert.