With November being National Veterans and Military Families Month and Veterans Day being honored on Wednesday, on Monday Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody started showcasing consumer protection resources available for service members, veterans and their families.
Throughout the week, Moody will be reminding service members and families about beneficial resources and offering tips about military-related scams on Twitter.
“As we observe National Veterans and Military Families Month, I encourage all Floridians to take the time to thank and honor our service members and veterans, as well as their families, who sacrifice so much daily. I believe we have a duty to protect the more than 1.5 million veterans and service members who call Florida home from scammers aiming to exploit their courage and service,” Moody said on Monday.
“This Patriot Protection Week, we aim to educate our military and veteran families with helpful resources, tips and information on how to avoid scams that target our patriots,” she added.
- Moody called on all service members and veterans to review these general tips to help avoid military-related scams:
- Beware of scammers using misleading photos or language to imply false association with a branch of the military;
- Verify the authenticity of an email or text that appears to be from a military branch. Phishing schemes use manipulated messages that falsely appear to be from a military branch or the U.S.;
- Department of Veterans Affairs in an effort to target service members, veterans or family members;
- Ensure that any military charity soliciting funds is registered with the state’s Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services at FDACS.gov/ConsumerServices; and
- Place an active-duty alert on credit reports at no cost. An active-duty alert requires businesses to take additional steps before granting credit in the name of active-duty personnel serving overseas.
Moody also released a new “Scams at a Glance: Protect our Patriots” brochure to add to the successful Scams at a Glance program. The program aims to teach consumers about common and emerging scams. The latest Protect our Patriots edition focuses on military-targeted scams.
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