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"Information collected about a business principal can easily be recycled into a fraudulent loan application or other forms of financial fraud,” says John Buzzard, a fraud and security

analyst with digital-finance research firm Javelin. BE CAREFUL WHERE YOU CLICK Another giveaway is a link or attachment in an unsolicited email or text message. Clicking it supposedly takes

you to important PPP information or forms you need to fill out. But as the FTC warns, the real purpose is to get you to disclose private information, or to infect your device with malware.

One such phishing message that made the rounds in April, shortly after the PPP launched, featured the SBA logo and instructions to download “documents we need you to sign for the Paycheck

Protection Program” and return them, with sensitive business information, to a supposed government portal. As Billings, Montana-based regional bank First Interstate noted in an online

warning about the scam, lenders handle PPP paperwork, not the SBA. "We're still seeing the same types of scams that showed up earlier this year, and anticipate these scams will

continue, both in our service area and beyond,” says Marcy Mutch, chief financial officer at First Interstate, which operates in six states across the Northwest. Mutch says the bank has also

heard of scammers contacting businesses in the guise of SBA or lending institutions to “verify loan information,” distribute fake PPP applications or collect a nonexistent application fee.

The scam threat might not evaporate when the program expires next month, says Buzzard, the Javelin analyst. “This would be the perfect time for criminals to randomize versions of PPP scams

as follow-up,” he says. For example, scammers might send out new rounds of emails or robocalls claiming that additional money had been allocated for PPP, that the deadline had been extended

again, or that unclaimed funds were being released to applicants who got turned down.