“Nearly every day we read about Veterans who have been swindled out of their savings,” claimed an Iowa newspaper.[i] Within the span of a single year, scams aimed at military Veterans were exposed across North America. Authorities uncovered Veteran-centered schemes from California[ii] to Indiana[iii] and to the East Coast. These scams even spilled over international lines, reaching victims like Elmer Lloyd — a 30-year-old Canadian Veteran — who was approached by a self-proclaimed representative of a Boston law firm with the news he had inherited $100,000. Fortunately for Mr. Lloyd (and his savings account), by the time he decided to pursue this inheritance, the “lawyer” had left town.[iv]
And unfortunately, this tactic of targeting Veterans is far from new. Everything mentioned in the paragraph above did not occur in 2018. Or even 2008.
The year was 1946. The target of the scammers was the savings and discharge pay of thousands of WWII Veterans returning home from Europe and the Pacific.
Veteran scams today
Swindlers and con-artists have a long history of targeting soldiers, often leveraging the Veteran’s sense of duty and loyalty to fellow Veterans. But while preying on Veterans is not a new development, the frequency we’re seeing in America today is perhaps unprecedented. One source in 1946 claimed Veterans were responsible for one in five complaints of fraud to authorities.[v] Today, according to a survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center Veterans are victimized by scam artists twice as often as the rest of the public. Further,
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