By Carol Kando-Pineda
Attorney, FTC
Veterans Day is intended to honor and thank all who served in the United States Armed Forces. Despite the nation’s gratitude to these heroes, there are some who would lie to make a buck off them.
Con artists target veterans and servicemembers for scams and rip-offs. Some scammers stretch the truth to get at veterans’ pensionsor prey on the desire to support veterans’ organizations by lying to get charitable donations. Veterans looking to use their education benefits may feel pressured to pay for education programs that waste their benefits and do them no good.
To help avoid these pitfalls, the FTC’s Consumer Center has articles on managing your money, handling credit and debt, avoiding scams, and recovering from identity theft. Check out the FTC’s page for Military Families to get these consumer resources.
The FTC also joined with its partners to create Military Consumer, a one-stop site with tips and tools from federal and state agencies, consumer groups, and military organizations to help servicemembers, veterans and their families empower themselves against scammers. Visit Military.ncpw.gov for free resources to put together an event, to distribute in your community, or share on your site, blog, and social media networks. Empower veterans you know and their families with information — it’s the first line of defense.