New Scam Targets Military Spouses Red Cross, Military Warn Military Families

[Family Ties Forever!]

link

New Scam Targets Military Spouses Red Cross, Military Warn Military Families

Posted: 10:23 am CDT May 31, 2007

There's a new warning for spouses of people in the U.S. military.

The American Red Cross said a new identity-theft scam targets family members of deployed troops. They learned of the scam earlier this month, said Devorah Goldburg of the Red Cross.

Goldburg said the scam involves a person with an American accent calling a military spouse, identifying herself as a representative of the Red Cross, and telling the spouse that her husband was hurt in Iraq and was medically evacuated to Germany. The caller then said that doctors can't start treatment until paperwork is completed, and that to start the paperwork they need the spouse to verify her husband's Social Security number and date of birth, according to a press release.

It is hard to determine how many spouses have been targeted by this scam, Goldburg said, as there are many ways for spouses to report problems like this.

"We know that it happened to one person; it was probably going to happen to others, and we wanted to be prudent and alert people," she said.

American Red Cross representatives typically do not contact military members or dependents directly and almost always go through a commander or first sergeant, according to a Red Cross news release. The military is urging family members not to give out any personal information over the phone if contacted by unknown individuals, including confirmation that their spouse is deployed.

Red Cross representatives contact military members or dependents directly only in response to an emergency message initiated by a family member, the news release said. The Red Cross does not report any type of casualty information to family members; the Defense Department will contact families directly about family members' injuries.

The military said it is a federal crime, punishable by up to five years in prison, for a person to fraudulently pretend to be a member of, or an agent for, the American Red Cross for the purpose of soliciting, collecting, or receiving money or material. Any military family member that receives such a call is urged to report it to their local family readiness group or military personnel flight.

Distributed by Internet Broadcasting.

[catlover79]