Gold Star Wives -watch for scams

[Berta]

Many DIC recipients are GSW members-I just got this email:

"Hello all:

Every once in a while organizations are subjects of SCAMS.  You can find anyone and anything on the internet and scammers are getting more clever all the time.  Sometimes it is a false request from chapter president to the chapter treasurer requesting funds.  But this is a new one and please do NOT FALL FOR IT.  We would never send out a request like this.  Always check the email from the sender.  If you have any questions, please contact your officers and ask.  Do not ever send money to a request like this!!!!!

Here is the wording some of you recently received:

Are you available to assist? I am out of the State now and I've got credence in you to take care of this.I would have called your phone but I presently do not have access to my mobile phone. 

Gold Star Wives of America,needs some gift cards for donation to Veterans at Hospice and Palliative care units for preventive items from Corona Virus Disease ( COVID 19).    

I have decided to make it a personal duty. I will be responsible for the reimbursement. 

Nancy Menagh,

Nancy Menagh
President, Gold Star Wives of America, Inc.
503-951-8634

[broncovet]

And, not "just" Gold Star either.  Apparently, they have "fake" corona virus test centers setup where they charge you 200 for a test..then you wont ever get the results.  

Also, there are scammers busy trying to con people out of stimulus checks...pretending to need your bank numbers to deposit your check.  

Dont ever give out your bank numbers to anyone who calls you, even if they say they are with the whitehouse.  There is something called "IP spoofing", where the caller id is fake.  

Websites, too, are faked by scammers.  Dont ever enter private information online such as credit card numbers, ssn, etc. "unless" the web address begins with https.  The "s" means its a secure website, dont rely upon a scammer telling you its a "secure website".  

Dont give your social security number to someone who calls you.  If VA calls, they sometimes ask for "your last 4" and thats ok.  If in doubt, tell them you will call back with that information.   Then look up their real phone number..and call it.  Dont follow an email link, that can be a scam.  

Dont open email attachments "even if" you know who sent the email.  Call them and ask them if they sent you this link, first.  Scammers often get our contact list, and we are duped into thinking "its ok" because its from a friend of mine.  Common scam.  The email is not from one of your friends, its from a scammer.  

I recently got an email from "an old buddy of mine".  We were together in the service.  Hes a good friend.  I was chatting with him one day, and something was not right.  

I knew it.  So, I asked him "who was with us" the last time we met.  He said he did not remember.  

I said, "Gee, friend, I guess you must have forgotton your wife's name."  

He stopped messaging me, because he knew he had been made.  It was not my friend at all, it was a scammer, who stole his contact list.  

My real friend would know who was with us the last time we met.  A scammer wouldnt.  

Edited April 6, 2020 by broncovet

[Berta]

GREAT Advice Broncovet!

I have been getting 10 to 20 scam emails a day since the 'stay at home' went into affect.

Some are very creative-

Two I got  today:

One header said my Pay Pal account has had unusual activity

The other said my Pay Pal order is arriving.

I NEVER use Pay Pal. These are scams.

I helped a vet here win a CUE at the BVA.It was years ago when I helped vets  via email sometimes.

Then I got those corrupted emails from him-someone had got a hold of his email addy-

He got Very angry with me -when I told him this- and said his kids were telling him this too.

He tried to blame this site.His profile said he had no friends.I believe it- he was hard to deal with- but that does not mean a scammer cannot get someone' s email.

I pay a lot every every year for good internet security.

Only once I and another widow I was helping within the DIC forum, were both hit at the same time-(we both had the same security app that immediately caught a trojan virus while we were on line here. ....and our  security quarantined the virus and eliminated it.) 

This crap happens to everyone as you said, but there are scammers out there who specifically focus on widows.

On the old board we had a member named Emily- it took her years but she succeeded in her DIC claim with a stunning IMO.She had started a web site solely for widows/widowers  of disabled veterans and had to shut it down due to the perverts who came to the site.

Watch out for the fake Amazon emails too.