Don’t Get Taken By Memorial Day Military Scams

Memorial Day is coming this Monday and, while it is a time to honor those who serve and remember those who have died in war, it has also become another guise for scam artists to take from people who are serving or have served their nation -- especially elderly veterans.The Better Business Bureau is warning to be on the lookout for deals that seem too good to be true, and for disreputable charities.

“Military personnel are targeted for a few of reasons: they get a steady paycheck, they tend to be young, they move around a lot, if they’re deployed they may not be watching their finances/personal info closely, everything in the military revolves around their social security number, so it’s easy for them to have their identity stolen,” said Coleen Smith the Executive Director of the BBB Education Foundation.

If you are ever curious about the legitimacy of a charity, you may want to check with this site first: www.give.org

Here are some common scams to watch for:

Scams that target military personnel
* Fraudulent investors try to convince veterans to transfer their assets into an irrevocable trust.
* Callers pose as the Veterans Administration and request military personnel to update credit card, bank or other financial records with the VA.
* Scammers pose as government contractors recruiting veterans and will ask for a copy of the job applicants’ passport.
*Companies specifically target military for services they could get for free or less expensively elsewhere.
* Advertisements that offer “instant approval” military loans (“no credit check,” “all ranks approved”) that can have high interest rates and hidden fees.
*Ads that offer military discounts and incentives online on housing and then cheat service personnel out of their security deposit.

Scams that target military supporters
* Scammers try to sell services like security systems to spouses of deployed military personnel by saying the service member ordered it to protect his or her family.
* People sell stolen vehicles at a low price and claim to be soldiers who need to sell quickly because they’ve been deployed.
*Individuals that pose on online dating services as a lonely service member in a remote part of Iraq or Afghanistan, and ask for money to be wired to a third party for some emergency.

For more information, visit www.bbb.org/us/military-line