Consumer Alert — Active Threats
How to Avoid Business Grant Scams and Funding Fraud
Thousands of small business owners lose money to fake grant programs, advance-fee schemes, and predatory loan offers every year. Know every tactic before you apply anywhere.
SMALL BUSINESS FRAUD — KEY STATISTICS
Businesses targeted by advance-fee fraud
$2.7B+ / yr
Avg. loss per business fraud victim
$47,000
Scam reports filed with FTC annually
2.6M+
Business owners who recover losses
Under 15%
Eagle Business Loans upfront fees
$0 — Always
Sources: FTC Consumer Sentinel Network · FBI Internet Crime Report · ACFE. Statistics represent broad fraud categories; individual figures vary by source and year. Always verify current data at ftc.gov.
If you have already paid an upfront fee to a funding company, stop all contact immediately. File a report with the FTC before sending any additional payment. 🔗 Report to FTC Now
Scammers Target Business Owners for Specific Reasons
Business owners are among the most targeted groups in the United States for financial fraud. The reason is straightforward: business owners are actively looking for capital, they’re under financial pressure, and they’re frequently unfamiliar with what legitimate lending actually looks like. Scammers exploit all three of these vulnerabilities simultaneously.
The business funding space is particularly dangerous because the legitimate alternative lending market operates quickly and with less documentation than traditional banks — making it harder for business owners to distinguish a fast, legitimate offer from a fast, fraudulent one. Scammers have studied what real lenders do and have learned to mimic it convincingly.
The most effective scams don’t look like obvious fraud. They have professional websites, use business terminology correctly, reference real government programs, and present a polished first impression. The warning signs are almost always in the fine print and in the payment requests that come after initial contact.
Targeting Desperation and Urgency
Scammers actively search for businesses that have been recently declined by banks or are facing payroll, inventory, or tax deadlines. The time pressure removes the victim’s ability to research.
Impersonating Government Programs
SBA grants, USDA rural development funds, and state-level grant programs are real — and scammers use their names deliberately. A website that looks official and references real program names can fool even skeptical business owners.
Social Media and Sponsored Ads
Fraudulent “business grant” offers are heavily promoted on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. Paid promotion makes them appear legitimate. The comment section is often filled with fake testimonials from coordinated accounts.
The Escalating Commitment Trap
After an initial small fee (“processing fee,” “insurance,” “taxes”), scammers request increasingly large payments. Each payment is justified by a new obstacle. Victims feel trapped — having already invested money — and keep paying hoping to recover it.
Fake Approval Documents
Sophisticated scams produce fake approval letters, fake wire transfer confirmations, and fake lender portals to create a convincing illusion of a real transaction in progress. These documents are designed to make the final payment request appear legitimate.
Warning Signs
10 Red Flags of a Business Funding Scam
Every legitimate lender and broker operates under the same basic rules. These ten red flags signal that you are not dealing with a legitimate funding provider — regardless of how professional the website or conversation appears.
Upfront Fees Required Before Funding
No legitimate lender requires payment before a loan is approved and funded. Any request for a “processing fee,” “application fee,” “insurance fee,” “tax hold,” or “security deposit” before you receive funds is a scam — without exception.
COMMON PHRASING
“We just need a $500 processing fee to release your $50,000 grant — it will be refunded at closing.”
Guaranteed Approval — No Questions
Every legitimate lender evaluates creditworthiness, revenue, and business history before making an approval decision. Any offer guaranteeing approval without reviewing your financial information is fraudulent. Legitimate lenders take on real risk — they cannot guarantee outcomes.
COMMON PHRASING
“You are pre-approved for $75,000 based on your business type alone. No credit check needed.”
Extreme Time Pressure to Decide
Legitimate lenders want you to review your offer carefully — because they’re providing real capital with real repayment expectations. Artificial urgency (“offer expires in 4 hours,” “only 2 spots remaining”) is a manipulation tactic designed to stop you from doing basic research.
COMMON PHRASING
“This grant allocation closes tonight at midnight. We can’t hold your spot past 5 PM.”
Contact from Personal Email Domains
Legitimate financial companies communicate from their own corporate domains (e.g., @eaglebusinessloans.com). Any company representing itself as a bank, lender, or government agency while using a Gmail, Yahoo, Outlook, or Hotmail address is fraudulent.
COMMON PHRASING
“SBA Grant Division — sbagrantdivision2024@gmail.com”
Claims of “Free” Government Business Grants
The SBA does not provide grants to for-profit businesses for general operating expenses or startup costs. Most government grants go to nonprofits, research institutions, and specific sectors. Any offer of a “free government business grant” with no strings attached is almost always fraudulent.
COMMON PHRASING
“You qualify for a $25,000 federal small business stimulus grant — no repayment required.”
Requests for Sensitive Info Before Any Agreement
Scammers use the application process to harvest Social Security numbers, EINs, bank account credentials, and personal financial data — then use it for identity theft independent of any loan. Never provide sensitive financial information before verifying a company’s legitimacy through independent sources.
COMMON PHRASING
“We just need your SSN and bank login to verify your account before we can process your approval.”
No Physical Address or Verifiable History
Legitimate lenders and brokers have real addresses, phone numbers, and a verifiable history. If a company’s website has no physical address, a PO box only, a recently registered domain (check WHOIS), or no reviews on Google or BBB, treat it as unverified until proven otherwise.
COMMON PHRASING
“We operate fully online for efficiency — no physical office needed.”
Wire Transfers or Gift Cards as Payment Method
Legitimate lending fees — when they exist post-closing — are deducted from loan proceeds or paid by standard business methods. Any company requesting payment via wire transfer, Zelle, Venmo, CashApp, Western Union, or gift cards (common phrasing: “buy Google Play cards for the processing fee”) is a scam.
COMMON PHRASING
“Please send the $1,200 insurance fee via Zelle to secure your funding position.”
Unsolicited Outreach Offering Funding
Legitimate lenders do not cold-call, cold-text, or cold-DM business owners with specific loan offers. If you did not initiate the contact, treat the offer with extreme skepticism — especially if the caller claims to have “found your business in a database” or references a recent bank decline you didn’t share publicly.
COMMON PHRASING
“I saw your business was recently declined — we have a special program just for businesses in your situation.”
Escalating Fees After Initial Payment
The defining characteristic of an advance-fee scam is that the fees never stop. After the first payment, new obstacles appear: tax holds, insurance requirements, international transfer fees, compliance certificates. Each is presented as the “last” obstacle before funds are released. They are not.
COMMON PHRASING
“We hit a compliance hold — just one more $800 transfer fee and the $50,000 will be released today.”
📋 The One Universal Rule: No Legitimate Lender Requires Upfront Fees
Every single one of these red flags can appear independently, but Upfront Fee #1 is the single most reliable indicator of fraud in the business funding space. Eagle Business Loans has never charged an upfront fee in its history, and no legitimate ISO, broker, or direct lender charges one. If you are asked to pay before receiving funds — for any reason, under any name — walk away.
Threat Intelligence
The Six Most Common Types of Business Funding Scams
Each scam type operates differently and targets a different vulnerability. Knowing the model helps you recognize it — even when the names and websites change.
Type 01
Advance-Fee Grant Scam
Warning Signals
The most common and financially destructive type of business funding fraud. The scammer presents a “government business grant” — often citing real programs like SBA Economic Injury Disaster Loans, USDA rural development grants, or state-level business stimulus funds — and offers the victim a large, free sum of money with no repayment required.
The catch arrives after the victim expresses interest: there are fees to process the grant. These fees start small ($200–$500) but escalate through a series of invented obstacles — tax holds, compliance certificates, insurance requirements, international transfer fees — with each payment framed as the “final” step. By the time the victim realizes no grant exists, they may have sent thousands of dollars.
The SBA does not provide grants to for-profit businesses for general operations. State programs that do provide grants almost always require a formal application process through official government portals — not through a third-party contact who found your business online.
Type 02
Fake Lender / Loan Mill Scam
Warning Signals
The fake lender presents a professional website, a loan product with plausible-sounding terms, and a seemingly normal application process. The business owner submits an application, provides bank statements and identification, and receives an “approval.” The approval requires an upfront “insurance fee” or “processing deposit” to initiate the wire transfer.
After the initial fee is paid, the lender either disappears entirely or requests additional fees for new “compliance” issues. No loan is ever funded. The personal and financial information collected during the application process may be used for identity theft or sold to other bad actors.
These operations often clone the visual design of real lenders, use slightly modified domain names (e.g., “sba-funding-network.com” instead of the actual SBA website at sba.gov), and post fake reviews on Google and Trustpilot using bot accounts.
Type 03
Predatory MCA / Loan Stacking
Warning Signals
Unlike outright fraud, predatory lending involves real money being provided — but under terms designed to trap the business in a cycle of debt. Predatory MCA operators offer merchant cash advances with factor rates that translate to effective APRs of 150–400%. The daily ACH repayment structure depletes business bank accounts and often makes the business insolvent within months.
Loan stacking is a related practice where a bad-faith broker or MCA operator helps a business stack multiple simultaneous advances from different lenders without disclosing the full combined repayment burden. The business quickly finds its entire daily deposit going to repayments.
Distinguishing a predatory MCA from a legitimate one requires reviewing the full factor rate, total repayment amount, and daily ACH amount before signing. A legitimate broker will present these figures clearly. A predatory one will obscure them in complex contract language.
Type 04
Credit Repair Funding Fraud
Warning Signals
This scam operates in the intersection of credit repair and business funding. The operator tells a business owner with challenged credit that they must first “repair” their business or personal credit through their proprietary service — typically for a large upfront fee of $1,500–$5,000 — before they can access funding. After the credit repair fee is paid, the promised funding either never materializes or requires additional fees.
Legitimate credit repair is a slow process governed by the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) — which prohibits charging fees before services are fully rendered. Any company that demands full payment upfront for credit repair services is violating federal law. Additionally, no amount of credit repair will instantly transform a 480 credit score into a 680 — claims of dramatic short-term credit score improvement are almost universally false.
Type 05
Social Media “Business Coach” Grant Scams
Warning Signals
This scam operates in the intersection of credit repair and business funding. The operator tells a business owner with challenged credit that they must first “repair” their business or personal credit through their proprietary service — typically for a large upfront fee of $1,500–$5,000 — before they can access funding. After the credit repair fee is paid, the promised funding either never materializes or requires additional fees.
Legitimate credit repair is a slow process governed by the Credit Repair Organizations Act (CROA) — which prohibits charging fees before services are fully rendered. Any company that demands full payment upfront for credit repair services is violating federal law. Additionally, no amount of credit repair will instantly transform a 480 credit score into a 680 — claims of dramatic short-term credit score improvement are almost universally false.
Type 06
Identity Theft Through Fake Applications
Warning Signals
This scam may not involve any upfront fee at all — its purpose is data collection. A convincing fake lender or broker website accepts loan applications, collects Social Security numbers, EINs, driver’s license copies, bank statement PDFs, and business financial data — then uses this information for identity theft, fraudulent tax filings, unauthorized account access, or resale on criminal marketplaces.
The victim may not realize anything has happened for weeks or months — until fraudulent tax returns are filed in their name, bank accounts are compromised, or new lines of credit appear on their credit report. Business identity theft is increasingly common and can take years to fully resolve.
Before submitting any sensitive documents to a lender or broker, verify their legitimacy: confirm the domain is correct, check the BBB and state licensing records, verify the physical address independently, and search for reviews on multiple platforms before entering any personal information.
Known Fraudulent Entities — Verify Before Any Contact
Companies Reported for Business Grant Fraud
⚖️ Legal Notice — Read Before Proceeding
The entities listed below have been identified in public fraud reports, consumer complaints, or regulatory actions as of the time this page was written. This list must be verified against current FTC, BBB, and state AG records before publishing. Company names change, operations relocate, and some entities may have been dissolved or renamed. Eagle Business Loans makes no legal claim against any named entity and is not responsible for the accuracy of third-party reports. This information is provided for educational purposes only. Always conduct independent verification before making any legal claim.
Future Nest Fund
Listed in the source document as a company associated with fake business grant offers. Full name, operating details, and current status must be independently verified through FTC.gov complaint database and state AG filings before this page goes live.
BeFundedGrant
Listed in the source document as a company associated with fraudulent grant programs. Verify current operating status, any FTC or BBB records, and confirm the name is accurate before publishing. Domain registration history may provide additional context.
EverGuarantee Bank
Listed in the source document as a company associated with fake banking / guarantee fraud. Confirm whether this entity is a real registered institution or a purely fictional name used for fraud before publishing. FDIC BankFind is the verification source.
Seperating Fact From Fiction
Common Business Grant Myths — Debunked
Scammers succeed partly because of widespread misconceptions about how business grants and government funding actually work. These myths make business owners vulnerable.
✗ Myth
“The SBA offers free grants to start or expand a for-profit small business.”
✓ Reality
The SBA does not provide grants to for-profit businesses for starting or expanding operations. The SBA offers loans, loan guarantees, and counseling — not grants. Free government grants for for-profit businesses are extremely rare, highly competitive, and almost exclusively limited to specific sectors like research (SBIR/STTR), agriculture, and energy. Most are administered directly through government portals, not third-party “grant specialists.”
✗ Myth
“If a company has a professional website, they must be legitimate.”
✓ Reality
A professional website can be built in hours for under $50. Scam operations invest heavily in visual presentation precisely because it’s cheap and effective. Website quality is not evidence of legitimacy. Verification requires: checking the domain age (WHOIS), confirming the physical address exists independently, finding third-party reviews on Google, Yelp, and BBB, and verifying any claimed state licenses through the relevant licensing authority.
✗ Myth
“There’s a secret database of unclaimed government grants that specialists can access.”
✓ Reality
All federal grant opportunities are publicly listed for free at grants.gov. State-level grant programs are listed on state economic development agency websites. There is no secret database, no insider access, and no paid service that unlocks grant opportunities unavailable through free public sources. Any “grant specialist” charging for access to a proprietary database is selling something that doesn’t exist.
✗ Myth
“Paying a small upfront fee is reasonable if it unlocks a large grant.”
✓ Reality
This is the foundational logic of advance-fee fraud — and it is always false. No real grant has an upfront fee payable to a third party. Real government grants have application processes, eligibility requirements, and reporting obligations — none of which require a private fee payment. The “small fee for large reward” logic is specifically designed to bypass rational skepticism. Once the first fee is paid, the demands will escalate.
✗ Myth
“If the offer is on Facebook or has a lot of positive comments, it’s probably real.”
✓ Reality
Facebook and Instagram are among the most common platforms for fraudulent business grant promotions. Comments sections on scam posts are frequently populated by coordinated fake accounts — often identifiable by account age, lack of personal content, and generic positive phrasing. Paid social media advertising does not verify the legitimacy of the advertiser. FTC complaints are full of fraud cases that originated from Facebook ads with hundreds of positive fake comments.
✗ Myth
“Legitimate lenders need your bank login to ‘verify’ your account quickly.”
✓ Reality
Legitimate lenders verify bank accounts by reviewing bank statements (PDF or printed copies) and a voided check — not by requesting online banking login credentials. Some lenders use Plaid (a bank account verification service) for read-only balance verification — but this requires your explicit consent through Plaid’s own interface, not sharing your username and password directly with a lender. Any lender asking for your banking credentials directly is not legitimate.
Safe Funding Practices vs. Scam Behaviors
— Side by Side
🚨 Signs You’re Dealing with a Scam
Upfront fee requested — any amount, any name
Processing fee, insurance fee, compliance deposit, tax hold, transfer fee — these are all the same thing. None are legitimate.
Approval guaranteed before any review
No lender can guarantee approval without evaluating your business. Guaranteed approval = no real underwriting = no real lender.
Time pressure — “expires today / tonight / in 1 hour”
Designed to prevent research. Legitimate offers don’t disappear because you took 24 hours to verify the company.
Navigation and research on you
Identifying, vetting, and applying to appropriate lenders requires significant research time and industry knowledge most business owners don’t have.
Contact from Gmail / Yahoo / personal email domain
No legitimate financial company sends business communications from a personal email provider.
Requests bank login credentials
Real lenders review PDF bank statements and voided checks — they never need your online banking password.
Payment requested via wire / Zelle / gift cards
These payment methods are untraceable and non-reversible — the hallmarks of fraud-specific payment requests.
No verifiable physical address or business history
WHOIS shows domain registered weeks ago. Google Maps shows no office. BBB shows no listing. These are disqualifying.
✅ How Legitimate Funding Works
Zero fees charged before funding is received
Legitimate lenders and brokers never charge upfront fees. Any fees are deducted from loan proceeds at closing or paid by the lender.
Underwriting based on real financial review
Bank statements, revenue history, credit profile, and time in business are reviewed before any approval decision. Outcomes are disclosed transparently.
You set the timeline — not the lender
You can take time to review all offer terms before accepting. A real lender will not withdraw an offer because you took 48 hours to decide.
Communication from verified corporate domain
Eagle Business Loans communicates from @eaglebusinessloans.com only. You can independently verify any email domain’s registration.
Document requests are standard: statements + ID
Bank statements, government ID, voided check, and EIN are the standard. No bank credentials, no notarized documents, no surprise requirements.
Compensation disclosed transparently
Eagle Business Loans receives an origination or referral fee from the lender at closing. This fee is paid by the lender — not by you. Always disclosed upfront.
Verifiable history, physical address, and real reviews
Eagle Business Loans is based in Morehead City, NC. We have a real address, real phone number, and real client history you can verify independently.
Report a Scam
How to Report a Business Funding Scam
Reporting scams protects other business owners and contributes to enforcement actions. All four of these agencies accept reports from small business owners who have been targeted or defrauded.
🏛️ Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
The primary federal agency for consumer and business fraud. FTC complaints contribute directly to investigations, enforcement actions, and consumer alerts. The FTC’s ReportFraud portal is specifically designed for business funding fraud, advance-fee scams, and identity theft.
⭐ Better Business Bureau (BBB)
The BBB Scam Tracker maintains a public, searchable database of scam reports. Filing a BBB report creates a public record that other business owners can find when researching a company. The BBB also issues Scam Alerts for patterns of fraud targeting specific business categories.
⚖️ Your States Attorney General
For many businesses, the AG’s Consumer Protection Division handles business fraud complaints. State enforcement can be faster than federal for locally-operating scam operations. File a complaint online or call the consumer protection hotline. Other states have equivalent offices.
🔒 FBI Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3)
For online fraud, wire fraud, and business email compromise, the FBI’s IC3 is the appropriate reporting channel. IC3 complaints are reviewed by FBI analysts and can trigger federal investigations. Particularly relevant for wire transfer fraud and sophisticated online scam operations.
📋 What to Prepare Before Filing a Report
Gather all documentation before reporting: names, email addresses, phone numbers, website URLs, any payment receipts or wire transfer records, screenshots of communications, and dates of all interactions. The more specific your report, the more actionable it is for investigators. Keep copies of everything — you may be contacted for follow-up information by investigators working related cases.
Eagle Business Loans
What Makes Eagle Business Loans Different From A Scam Operation
Eagle Business Loans vs. a Scam Operation
If you’ve read this far, you know what to watch for. Here’s how Eagle Business Loans measures against every standard on this page — and why our ISO model is the safest way to access business funding when you need it.
As a licensed Independent Sales Organization, Eagle Business Loans is compensated by lenders at closing — never by borrowers. We connect business owners with our verified lender network, manage the application process, and advocate for the best terms available for your profile. There are no upfront fees. No payment of any kind before funding is received.
We disclose our compensation model explicitly and in writing. We will tell you upfront when a program isn’t right for your profile. We do not stack advances without full disclosure of the combined repayment impact. And we are reachable at a real address in Morehead City, NC — not a Gmail account.
Zero Upfront Fees — Ever
Eagle Business Loans has never charged a borrower an upfront fee and never will. Our entire compensation comes from lending partners at closing.
Full Compensation Disclosure
We tell every applicant how we are paid — in plain language, before they apply. No hidden compensation, no undisclosed referral arrangements.
Verified Lender Network Only
Every lender in our network is independently verified. We do not refer business owners to unvetted funding sources.
Real Address. Real Contact. Real People.
Morehead City, NC. You can call us, email us at our corporate domain, and verify our business independently before sharing a single document.
Scam
Upfront fee required before funding
Scam
Guaranteed approval, no review
Scam
Extreme time pressure to decide now
Scam
Gmail / Yahoo email contact
Scam
Hidden compensation, undisclosed fees
Scam
No verifiable address or history
Eagle Business Loans
$0 fees before funding — ever
Eagle Business Loans
Honest pre-qualification, real underwriting
Eagle Business Loans
You set the timeline — no pressure tactics
Eagle Business Loans
Corporate domain only — verifiable
Eagle Business Loans
Full compensation disclosure — in writing
Eagle Business Loans
North Carolina — independently verifiable
The True Scale of Business Funding Fraud in the United States
Business fraud is among the fastest-growing categories of financial crime in the United States. The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network receives millions of fraud reports annually, and small business owners are disproportionately targeted — both because of the amounts involved and because business fraud is less likely to be detected quickly than consumer fraud. A business owner who sends $5,000 to a scammer may not realize the fraud until weeks later, when the promised grant or loan never arrives and the “company” becomes unreachable.
The advance-fee grant scam specifically has been documented by the FTC, the FBI, and state attorneys general across every region of the country — including North Carolina. The specific claims vary — SBA grants, COVID relief funds, federal stimulus programs, state economic development grants — but the structure is always the same: a promise of free money, a series of fee requests, and ultimately no funding delivered.
Why “Free Government Business Grants” Are Almost Always a Scam Signal
The misconception that the federal government freely distributes grants to for-profit small businesses is one of the most persistent myths in the small business community — and scammers exploit it relentlessly. The reality is more nuanced: real government grants do exist, but they are program-specific, highly competitive, require formal applications through official government portals, and are almost exclusively directed at nonprofits, research institutions, and businesses in designated sectors like agriculture, energy, and biomedical research.
The Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program is the most prominent legitimate federal grant program for small businesses — but it is specifically for research and development in high-technology sectors and requires a rigorous application process. USDA rural development grants exist for specific agricultural and rural development purposes. State-level grants vary widely by state but are uniformly available through official state economic development agencies at no cost. Any third party claiming to facilitate access to these programs for a fee is not offering a legitimate service.
How to Verify a Business Lender Before You Apply
Before submitting any financial documents to any lender or broker — legitimate or otherwise — these verification steps take under 10 minutes and can prevent significant financial harm. First, check the domain registration date using a WHOIS lookup tool (whois.domaintools.com). A domain registered within the past few months for a company claiming years of experience is a serious red flag. Second, search the company name on the BBB website and note both the rating and any complaint history. Third, verify the physical address on Google Maps — does the building shown match the type of business? Fourth, search “[company name] + scam” or “[company name] + FTC” on Google — if a pattern of complaints exists, it will surface quickly.
For North Carolina business owners specifically: the NC Secretary of State’s office maintains a searchable database of registered businesses in North Carolina. Any company claiming to be based in NC can be verified at sosnc.gov. The NC Office of the Commissioner of Banks licenses and oversees many financial institutions — another verification resource for NC-based lenders.
What to Do If You’ve Already Paid a Scammer
If you have already paid an upfront fee to what you believe may be a fraudulent funding company, take these steps immediately: stop all communication with the company — do not send any additional payments regardless of what they promise. Contact your bank or payment processor immediately to attempt a chargeback if you paid by credit card or debit card (wire transfers and Zelle payments are substantially harder to reverse, but notify your bank anyway). File a report with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, the BBB at bbb.org/scamtracker, and the NC Attorney General’s office at ncdoj.gov. If you provided your Social Security Number or business banking credentials, place a fraud alert with the three major credit bureaus (Experian, Equifax, TransUnion) and monitor your accounts closely for unauthorized activity.
Most importantly: do not be embarrassed about reporting. Sophisticated scammers target experienced, intelligent business owners — not just those who are uninformed. The FTC’s data shows that business owners with multiple years of experience are just as likely to be victimized as new business owners, because the scams are professionally designed to exploit legitimate needs rather than naivety.
Quick Reference: Always Safe
Verify company at BBB.org before applying
Check domain age via WHOIS
Confirm corporate email (not Gmail)
Verify physical address independently
Never pay fees before funding is received
Review full repayment terms before signing
Ask for compensation disclosure in writing
Always Walk Away If:
Any upfront fee requested
Approval guaranteed, no review
Offer expires today / urgent deadline
Gmail or Yahoo email contact
Wire / Zelle / gift card payment
Bank login credentials requested
Frequently Asked Questions
Are there any legitimate free grants for small businesses?
Yes — but they are specific, competitive, and never promoted by third-party “grant specialists” charging fees. Legitimate options include: SBIR/STTR grants (R&D focused, administered by federal agencies directly), state economic development grants (through official state agency websites), USDA rural development programs, and grants from private foundations and corporations (typically for specific purposes like minority-owned businesses, women-owned businesses, or sustainability). All are publicly listed at grants.gov or on official state websites — no fee required to access the listings.
Is the SBA offering COVID relief grants or stimulus funds in 2024–2025?
The major COVID-era SBA relief programs (EIDL grants, PPP forgivable loans, Restaurant Revitalization Fund, Shuttered Venue Operators Grant) have ended. Any company claiming to offer access to active COVID stimulus or pandemic relief grants through a private application process is misrepresenting the current availability of these programs. Check sba.gov directly for the current status of any SBA program — never rely on a third party’s description of what SBA programs are available.
What’s the difference between a broker fee and an upfront scam fee?
A legitimate broker — including Eagle Business Loans — is compensated by the lender at closing, not by the borrower before funding. The fee comes out of the lender’s side of the transaction, not yours. A scam fee is paid by you, to a third party, before you receive any funds — for any reason. If you are ever unsure, ask the company in writing: “Who pays your compensation — the lender or the borrower, and when?” A legitimate broker will answer that question clearly and in writing without hesitation.
I already paid an upfront fee. Can I get my money back?
If you paid by credit card, file a chargeback dispute immediately — credit card issuers have consumer protection processes for fraud. Debit card transactions may be reversible if reported quickly to your bank. Wire transfers and Zelle/Venmo payments are very difficult to recover — notify your bank immediately, but recovery is unlikely. File reports with the FTC, BBB, and NC AG’s office regardless of payment method. In some cases, FTC enforcement actions against specific operations have resulted in consumer refunds, though this is not common. Report even if you believe recovery is impossible — your report helps prevent others from being victimized.
How do I know if Eagle Business Loans is legitimate?
Eagle Business Loans is a licensed ISO based in Morehead City, NC. You can verify our physical address, search our business name on the NC Secretary of State website, and find our contact information through multiple independent channels. We communicate from our corporate domain only — never from personal email providers. We never charge upfront fees, we disclose our compensation in writing, and we will always tell you honestly whether you qualify for a program before asking you to proceed with any application.
Are Facebook “business grant” ads legitimate?
The vast majority are not. Facebook allows advertisers to run ads for business grant programs without independently verifying whether the grant is real. The comment sections of fraudulent grant ads are almost always populated by fake accounts. The FTC has issued multiple consumer alerts specifically about social media business grant scams. If you see a grant offer on Facebook or Instagram, apply the same verification standards as any other offer: check the domain age, verify the physical address, search the company on BBB, and confirm there are no FTC complaints. Do not pay any fee regardless of how the offer is presented.
What’s the difference between a merchant cash advance and a scam?
A legitimate merchant cash advance (MCA) is a real financial product where a lender advances capital against your future card revenue. It involves no upfront fee, a real application process, a disclosed factor rate and total repayment amount, and daily ACH deductions from your business account. The hallmarks of a predatory or fraudulent MCA are: undisclosed factor rates and total repayment, multiple advances stacked without disclosure, no written agreement before funding, or an upfront fee to “qualify” for the advance. Eagle Business Loans will always disclose the full economics of any MCA offer clearly before you sign.
Can I search for complaints about a specific funding company?
Yes — multiple free resources are available. The FTC’s Consumer Sentinel Network publishes a general data book; specific company searches are available through the FTC’s Business Center. The BBB at bbb.org/search allows searches by company name and shows both BBB rating and complaint history. The CFPB Consumer Complaint Database at consumerfinance.gov/data-research/consumer-complaints covers financial products. Your state attorney general’s office may also have a searchable complaint database. Always check at least two of these sources before submitting a loan application to any company you haven’t independently verified.
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