Identity Theft on the Rise Amongst Military

Scott Higgins and Roy Asfar from Veterans Advantage sent me an article they wrote for Business Week recently and I wanted to share it with all of you even though it isn’t strictly travel related.  Here is a quote that I liked from the article:

“According to a Federal Trade Commission consumer study released in 2013, the percentage of identity theft complaints from the military demographic is more than double that of the general public.”

This blog is all about getting you a better deal and trying to leverage your past or present military duty to do so, but we all need to be aware of our PII (Personally Identifiable Information) and ensure it does not fall into the wrong hands.  Hand over your DD214 to someone and you may end up finding your credit ruined.  Just give them enough information to get the discount or the deal and try to verify the contact is real.  If you call a credit card company, as we advocated in these recent posts on Amex and Chase, that is probably OK.  However, if someone rings you up and claims to be from Amex or Chase and wants your PII – watch out!  If a store clerk wants to see you CAC card, great, but I wouldn’t let them take it in the back and make a copy of it.  Discounts are great, but sometimes they are not worth the risk.

The full article can be found at this link.