AARP Hearing Center
You can subscribe here to AARP Veteran Report, a free e-newsletter published every two weeks. If you have feedback or a story idea then please contact us here.
There are around 18 million veterans in the United States. Their admirable qualities such as patriotism, openheartedness, optimism and can-do spirit — not to mention their earning power and access to benefits — make them a juicy target for scammers.
Those who have served our nation are more likely than civilians to lose money from scams. Veterans and their families can protect themselves from criminals by being aware of the most common scams aimed at them.
1. Pension poaching
A scammer promises to help a veteran grow his or her retirement funds or obtain extra benefits from the VA. Often, this scam is aimed at former service members who do not actually qualify for VA pensions. Victims could be required to repay these fraudulently obtained benefits to the government.
2. Benefits buyout
Someone contacts you and offers to help navigate the bureaucracy at the VA. Maybe the person claims you’re eligible for expanded benefits or says that he can get you your benefits in a lump-sum payment. Of course, a lump-sum payment never materializes or the cash being offered is a fraction of the value of the benefits.
3. Identity theft
The VA is not in the business of calling people out of the blue. If you get an email claiming to be from the VA and it asks for personal information, this is a scam 100 percent of the time.