An email security firm found 645 potentially fraudulent PPP-related domains registered since the CARES Act was signed into law. Here's how you can protect your business from the theft of critical data. (by jules0117insc)
earlier this week, another group is already camped in cyberspace waiting to capitalize on funds from this program: fraudsters. showed that at least 645 potentially misleading domain names related to the PPP were registered between March 30 and April 20, 2020 — URLs that could be used for phishing and other attacks on small businesses and entrepreneurs applying for assistance from the PPP.
Tessian's analysis showed that more than a third of the domains are grouped together, meaning they redirect users to the same set of websites, and 28% were from different loan providers that have a separate PPP presence through an online form. The report advised that although these domains may not all be spammy, it's important for people to be wary of what they're signing up for, what information they're sharing, and any associated costs.
"These scams might tell you that there's an issue with your application or they need one more thing from you, but then you have to go in and enter a whole bunch of other things and of course you're not on the SBA's website," Baptiste told Business Insider. 1. Asking for updates to the recipient's application 'because there's a problem'
Domain prefixes — that's the first part of a domain, where the "www" generally is — are totally unregulated, Tessian's Sadler pointed out, and bad actors can use them to attempt to further confuse unwitting recipients, for example, by putting "sba" there instead. domain, it does not mean that they own all possible variations of the root or top-level domain ," Sadler told Business Insider.
"Business owners see this and they think it's similar to the PPP, and next thing you know, they're involved in a similar situation with a loan that carries a super-high interest rate and it doesn't really help them," Baptiste said.
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