NORFOLK, Va. — There is a new warning about scams targeting service members in our armed forces.
Our military members serve our country with distinction but unfortunately, there are scammers out there who want to target them.
13News Now obtained a letter, purportedly sent by ship leadership to families of deployed sailors, warning of an e-mail scam with fake information. The alleged scammer is trying to get military families to send money to them by pretending to be a deployed sailor.
The letter says: “…A family member of a sailor received a scam email that appeared to originate from the sailor's shipboard email account. The email asked for the family member to send money to an account that was not related to the actual sailor. This email was not authentic and the sailor did not send it from their shipboard account.”
Fredlena Cosby of the Hampton Roads Better Business Bureau says scams targeting military service members and their families are not uncommon.
"Our community here in Hampton Roads -- of course, it’s so populated by the military families that whether it’s active duty, spouses, veterans, retired individuals or their families -- it’s very common that they have been taken for scams," Cosby said.
“Scammers attack or target the active duty military personnel and even their children or their wives because they have the steady paychecks, of course. They’re often required to put faith in other people, or their family members, while juggling deployment, their moves.”
Cosby said there are some things all of us can do to protect ourselves. If you get a suspicious email or text, try to independently contact the person the scammer is imitating, and never give away sensitive information or transfer money to anyone you can’t verify.
“Verify, verify, verify! I can’t say it enough," Cosby said. "Especially if they’re trying to impersonate someone. Ask questions to see if that’s really your family member. You never also want to wire transfer any money to anyone you don’t know.”
Another important tip from Cosby: be wary of urgent instructions, things like time limits, or warnings that something bad will happen if you don’t comply.
“Avoid all aggressive selling tactics," she said. "If they’re pushing you to pay right then or they’re giving you some kind of response where you’ll go to jail or anything like that, or your family member is going to be hurt. You want to avoid all those things and report it immediately.”
The BBB also recommends people not click any links or open any attachments in unexpected text messages or e-mails.
Cosby said you can keep track of common scams and report them on the BBB's scam tracker website.
13News Now reached out to the Navy about the email but we have not heard back, just yet.