New steps to prevent fraud against veterans, service members and families | va new mexico health care | veterans affairs

PRESS RELEASE August 9, 2024 Washington , DC — New Steps to Prevent Fraud Against Veterans, Service Members and Families On August 9, 2024, VA and the Biden-Harris Administration announced

the launch of VSAFE.gov and 1-833-38V-SAFE (1-833-388-7233) — a new government-wide website and call center designed to protect Veterans, service members, and their families from fraud and

scams. * These new resources will help inform Veterans and their families of common fraud schemes, give them tools to protect themselves, and provide an outlet for reporting and further

assistance. * “This new call center and website are a one-stop-shop for Veterans, service members, and their families to help avoid fraud and scams,” said VA Secretary Denis McDonough. “We

know that more Veterans than ever before are now receiving VA benefits, which sadly means that more bad actors are trying to steal those benefits. That’s why we’re launching these tools: to

give these heroes every tool at the federal government’s disposal to protect themselves and their families.” * On August 9, 2024, VBA also launched the Claims Predators Fraud Prevention

Communication Campaign.  * VBA defines claims predators as “bad actors” that try to unlawfully charge Veterans a fee to “help” them file VA benefits claims.  * VA urges Veterans to use only

VA accredited representatives and released a claims predators toolkit for stakeholders to support amplification.  * The public facing communication toolkit contains a frequently asked

questions document, a claims predators infographic/flyer, four Native American infographics for different regions (arid, great plains, snow covered, and tropical), and a PowerPoint

presentation for external audiences.  * The recent publications for the Claims Predators launch include Vet Resources (sent to over 15M recipients), VBA’s August Newsletter (sent to 7M

recipients), VA Insider (for VA employees), VA News, VBA Facebook posts, VBA Instagram posts, etc.  * As part of an initiative to enhance fraud prevention measures, Claims Predators was

featured in the August 2024 Education newsletter, “Education SCO in the Know”. * VBA published a Claims Predators Campaign post, in Spanish, on September 15, 2024, across VBA and VA social

media platforms – which reached a combined total of over 779,000 followers.  ###