Scams targeting US troops and their families
|
Image: kansascity.com
A 3rd Infantry Division soldier deploying to Iraq is warning other servicemembers of the latest scam to target troops and their families. According to 1st Lt. David Cowan, in early December his 84-year-old grandmother received a phone call from a man calling himself J.D. Taylor. The man claimed that Cowan was on his way home on leave from Iraq for the holidays, but had gotten hung up and lost his wallet and military identification card.
Cowan’s grandmother, he said, was “asked by this person to wire $800, allegedly on my behalf so that I could get back home and surprise my family for Christmas.”
The claim was a scam. Luckily for Cowan and his family, his grandmother knew to be suspicious of strangers asking for money, even if they’d somehow managed to reach the relatives of a soldier whose name they knew.
“I told her to write down everything she could remember from the conversation and to immediately contact the authorities,” Cowan wrote in an e-mail to Stripes. “My grandmother is 84, and still a very sharp woman. Thankfully, she immediately saw through his scam and decided to contact me directly.”
Read more on Stars and Stripes
Add your comment