In December, VA partnered with the Federal Trade Commission as well as the Treasury Inspector General for Tax Administration to discuss ways Veterans and their beneficiaries can combat identity theft. This first Twitter Chat Q&A with VA’s Identity Safety Service and Office of Information Security produced over 100 retweets in the first hour. By following the hashtag #VeteranIDTheft you can look back on the conversation. Here are some of the top questions and their answers from our chat:
What is identity theft and why should vets care?
What makes vets a target for identity theft?
What is VA doing to protect my identity?
Are there ways vets can help proactively protect themselves from identity theft?
About the author: Marissa Bartus-Dobson supports the VA Office of Information Security.
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During Data Privacy Week (Jan. 27 - 31), VA is sharing guidance on how Veterans and their beneficiaries can protect their data, especially Personally Identifiable Information (PII).
For Veterans especially, the risk of identity theft is high, as criminals target reoccurring monthly benefits payments. Bad actors utilize stolen privacy information to exploit VA benefits, health care and pensions.
Older adults are targeted with misinformation daily. In 2022, older adults reported losing more than $186 million to government imposter scams.