Applying for VA benefits is free - so anyone charging you a fee is a scammer

Applying for VA benefits is free. Hold onto that single fact, because it defuses a scam the Federal Trade Commission warned about this week, aimed squarely at veterans and people getting ready to leave the military. An AARP survey found 39% of veterans had been approached by someone claiming to represent the VA - so if this hasn't reached you, it has probably reached someone you know.

Here's the pitch. You get an out-of-the-blue call, text, email or social-media message from someone who says they're with the Department of Veterans Affairs, or "VA-approved." They offer to help you apply for benefits you're supposedly missing, bump you up to a 100% disability rating, or fast-track a stuck claim - and there's a fee for the service. That fee is the whole scam. The VA will never charge you to apply, and only the VA can decide your eligibility and award benefits. Anyone promising a specific rating in exchange for money is lying.

If you do want a hand with a claim, that's fine - just use a genuinely accredited representative, which you can confirm with the VA's own accreditation search tool rather than trusting whoever contacted you. Don't pay, and don't share your Social Security number or bank details with an unexpected caller. You can report these approaches to the VA's fraud line at 1-833-38V-SAFE or at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

Scams like this succeed by collecting enough of your personal details to reach your accounts. Tendvane's Privacy & accounts check shows which of your logins have already surfaced in known data leaks, so you can lock down the exposed ones before anyone tries to use them.