The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is warning veterans about scams in which veterans are being contacted by phone, email or text messages from scammers posing as VA representatives who tell the veterans that they were overpaid benefits and must return the funds immediately. The emails may contain the VA logo and phone calls and text messages may appear to come from the VA, but it is important to remember that the VA will never call, text or email a veteran if there had actually been an overpayment. Instead the veteran would get a formal letter from the VA explaining the amount claimed to be owed and the right of the veteran to appeal the determination or set up a payment plan.
An easy way to recognize this scam is that the scammers, as they often do, request payments by cryptocurrencies or gift cards which scammers love for their anonymity, but are never asked for or accepted by the VA.
TIPS
Trust me, you can’t trust anyone. If you do receive such a communication, you should not respond to it directly, but rather go to your VA.gov account where you can see if you actually have been overpaid. If you have been overpaid you can call the VA’s Debt Management Center at 1-800-827-0648 to set up a repayment plan.
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