Online Scams and Veterans
Which digital traps is the veteran student most susceptible to?
Just as there are charity scams that focus on veterans, veterans are also easy targets for "employment" websites. Many veterans are duped into paying hundreds of dollars for professional resumes and employment assistance! I reviewed one of these "resumes" and found words that weren't spelled corrected.
Sharon,
How can we combat this scam for a broad audience? At my university we have created and use some electronic tools that will help students and veterans specifically create a resume and a cover letter that they can use. We also employ career coaches that will help a veteran create their 30 second elevator presentation for use in interviews. And there is no cost to the students except their time and brain power. Is there a better way, again on a broad scale, that we can do this for veterans?
We utilize the online program, Optimal Resume, which is available for both current students and graduates. I highly recommend this program to our veterans because it is a resume wizard which will walk them through the resume process plus demonstrate templates that are available. At least I know that this is a reputable site that won't result in spam e-mails. Our campus also provides a student portal e-mail address so both current students and graduates have a professional e-mail address to use on their documents. I also have a hard copy packet that I supply to students with various templates of employment documents (resumes, cover letters, thank you letters).
Veterans must be aware of the scams forcing novice and not so novice computer's networks users, to render information that is used to steal their identities, charging them for fraudulent services. The veterans must be very cautious as to not give out their social security number, credit cards, banks accounts ,if they are not sure of how to proceed, they should get technical advise from expert before they proceed. If one is skeptical on some topic, do not proceed, get help from a trusted source. A veteran must review any typed documents prior to releasing them to a network or prospective employer, by doing so, this will eliminate any erroneous perceptions, that this person cannot spell properly. It is always better to have a second opinion.
EDUARDO,
Veterans are scam targets and unfortunately there is not a good way for you or I to stop the scams. But what we can do is to coach the veteran on how to safeguard their personal information so that they will not have their identify stolen. I only started using a financial planner toward the end of my 28 year career and wish I had taken that leap much earlier. How would you advise a transitioning service member to proceed with their finances? What specific guidelines would you tell a veteran to do so they do not become another statistic of veterans being scammed?
Garland Williams, Ph.D.
Like civilians veterans are susceptible to digital scams, these scams may be in the form of telephone callers trying to persuade individuals to reveal personal information, social media, and while filling out information for jobs online. At all times civilians as well as veterans must remain vigilant, and realize that if it is too good to be true it probably is not true.
Online scams do not discriminate - they affect civilians as well as veterans and require the online user to be vigilant in their online protections. Some simple rules remain true. If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. Nobody from a reputable company will ask PII through the internet or email. And the less personal information that a user can put on their LInked In or Facebook accounts will help to better protect the Veteran from scammers.
