BALTIMORE — If you're a veteran, scammers could be targeting you.
These fraudsters want access to your personal information.
Veterans are 40 percent more likely to lose money to scammers.
Natalie Souza is the Veteran Service Center Manager for the Baltimore VA Regional Office & National Capital Region Benefits Office.
Over the last year, she has worked on at least seven cases where veterans fell victim to a scam.
"In some of these cases they were able to stop funds from being taken out their bank accounts, but in some cases, they have had taken funds from the persons or veterans bank account. Some of even had loans taken in out in their name," said Souza.
One scam making the rounds is spoofing.
That's when someone disguises their caller ID information, pretending to be from the VA or a veteran service agency.
"So, they'll use tactics like this is so and so from this organization or the VA, we've been reviewing your claim and we found a problem with your banking information and we just need you to verify it," said Souza.
Vets usually don't find out it was a scam until it's too late.
Souza says non-traditional payment requests, are common red flags.
"If someone is asking you to send funds via Zelle, Venmo, MoneyGram, Western Union or even Cryptocurrency, that's a huge indicator that they are scammers," said Souza.
Deyane Moses, a Baltimore Army veteran, hasn't been scammed but says it's disheartening to hear tricks played on those who served.
"For people who are out there stealing and trying to scam, just stop, it's not worth it," said Moses.