As of August 2021, the Small Business Administration reported it had received 1.2 million complaints of loan identity theft for Economic Injury Disaster Loans. That means over a million business owners believe their business identities have been used to apply for Covid relief loans administered by the SBA.
I am one of those victims. Here’s what happened to me, along with steps I'm taking that you can also use to help protect your business.
I learned about the fraudulent loan application because my personal Experian credit report lists an inquiry from “SBA ODA,” but I’ve never applied for a loan from the SBA.