Crooks taking advantage of servicemen, women

Scammers targeting veterans
Crooks taking advantage of servicemen, women
COVINGTON — Things aren’t always what they seem, warns Tommy Clack, field manager and veterans service officer for the Georgia Department of Veterans Services for the east side of Atlanta.
Reporter: By Barbara Knowles
COVINGTON — Things aren’t always what they seem, warns Tommy Clack, field manager and veterans service officer for the Georgia Department of Veterans Services for the east side of Atlanta.

Telephone solicitors may not be who they say they are and just because a guy with a pair of camouflage pants and a flag sets up a table outside a local retail store, he may not be a veteran.

Clack says scam artists are running rampant in an effort to circumvent government funding and charitable donations intended for veterans.

“It’s an epidemic going on in Georgia and the country,” he said. “All these billions of dollars the federal government is acknowledging they are putting into the veterans’ arena, there are unscrupulous people out there who want to partake of that. They fake being a veteran, fake credentials, have fake offices and collect money from an unknowing public.”

Clack said the reason is simple — the word “veteran” evokes an emotional response.

“When you use the word ‘veteran’ in public, you’re going to get a response,” he said. “Americans want to take care of them.”

Newton County resident Randy Upton said he was curious about a group he found soliciting money in front of one of the area Wal-Mart stores and struck up a conversation with them. He said the solicitors acknowledged they were not veterans, had never served, much less been wounded, in military service and were being paid to sit in front of the store, dressed in paramilitary outfits and collect funds.
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Clack says emphatically citizens should not donate to any group without knowing if the money is actually going to be used for the stated purpose.

“I suggest before anybody gives them money, you find out about them by getting a financial sheet showing where their money goes and if they are putting most of it back into the community. What services are they providing. What veterans are they benefiting? Legitimate groups are going to take your name and address and mail you a financial statement. Those groups are required to do a monthly, quarterly, yearly statement to show where their money goes,” he said.

Scammers targeting veterans