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Did you get a bill for a Small Business Administration (SBA) loan, but you didn’t apply for one? It’s likely that an identity thief applied for the loan using your personal or business information. The SBA has new guidance about reporting the fraud, and the FTC has tips to help you clear up any credit problems it may cause.
 
The SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance has been issuing the loans under its COVID-19 Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) program. They’re designed to give financial help to small businesses and non-profit organizations. Criminals have taken advantage of the program by using stolen information to get loans in someone else’s name, or in the name of that person’s company. And now, the bills are landing in the mailboxes of people and businesses that never applied.
 
If you or your business is billed for an SBA EIDL loan you don’t owe:
  • Report the problem right away to the SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance and follow their guidance on what to do.
  • While the SBA processes your identity theft report, you may still get monthly invoices. Keep these invoices until the SBA has finished reviewing your identity theft report.
If you run into other problems caused by the misuse of your personal information:
  • Visit IdentityTheft.gov/steps, which will guide you through placing a free, one-year fraud alert on your credit, checking your free credit reports for other accounts you did not open, closing fraudulent accounts opened in your name, and adding a free extended fraud alert or credit freeze to your credit report.
  • Report on IdentityTheft.gov all instances of fraudulent accounts that you find, including the SBA loan. You will get an Identity Theft Report that you can use to clear fraudulent information from your credit reports. Your personal credit may be affected by the identity theft. Keep a close eye on what’s in your credit report by checking it regularly. Visit annualcreditreport.com to get a free credit report every year from each of the three national credit agencies.
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The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

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  • We won’t post comments that include personal information, like Social Security numbers, account numbers, home addresses, and email addresses. To file a detailed report about a scam, go to ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

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Michael
March 09, 2021
I'd glad that I read the above notice. Because If I do get anything like a bill from a (SBA) loan. I'll know who to contact. I've been hearing on my local everning news, about a lot of people are being scramed, or trying to get scramed. I don't take anything for granted anymore, these days. THANKS AGAIN!
Harold
March 10, 2021
Interesting to note that due to massive fraud across the board in virtually all areas the SBA and other loan entities don't do more investigating regarding the identity of the "borrower". SBA should be taking more responsibility concerning fraud and theft attempts by criminals.
James Fishman
March 10, 2021
I was notified by Experian that the SBA pulled my report. I called and learned from the SBA that a loan application had been filed in my name and SSN. They cancelled the application and I was able to obtain the loan application which provides identifier info for the fraudster (their email, cell no. and bank acct info.) should I report this to the FBI, Secret Service?
FTC Staff
March 10, 2021

In reply to by James Fishman

You can report the attempted identity theft at www.IdentityTheft.gov. This blog explains other steps you can take to protect your information in case the scammer tries again to use your name and Social Security number. The information you enter at IdentityTheft.gov goes into a secure database that is shared with other law enforcement agencies and used in investigations.

Patrick in NC
March 12, 2021
I reported a fraudulent EIDL to the SBA and FBI three months ago and have receive no response from either. I also reported the identity theft to the FTC and followed their guidance by filing reports with the local police, freezing my credit with the three reporting agencies, etc. Just hanging out, 90 days later, waiting on bogus loan payment statements to arrive.
Justsomeone
August 01, 2021

In reply to by Patrick in NC

We've been waiting almost a year with NO indication of anything happening! Apparently we will have a bill due next month for the fraudulent SBA loan.
Don't use your…
March 13, 2021
I was told several different applications were submitted in my name. I did only 2 the second after never getting a reply after 10 months now I have to resubmit they say I am so confused and need the help desperately
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