VA News: Claim Sharks

VA Secretary Denis McDonough is sharing an important message, to raise awareness and provide Veterans tips to stay safe from predatory behavior of “claim sharks”.

Claim sharks are professionals who use aggressive tactics through the mail, telephone and online tools to take advantage of Veterans, their families, caregivers and survivors.

With a historic expansion of benefits under the 2022 PACT Act came new tricks and scams to rob Veterans of their valuable benefits. You protected us, we want to protect you.

“We will continue to protect Veterans and will cooperate with our federal partners to bring bad actors to justice,” McDonough said.

Knowing who to trust can be hard when commercial messages come from every direction. Predatory people and organizations often target Veterans with offers of assistance that seem too good to be true. The messages are engaging, and it’s easy to be misled by these deceptive practices. Contrary to their claims, it’s important to know their goal isn’t to help you receive a benefit but to take advantage by adding on unnecessary costs or hidden fees for services. You can be assured Veterans, VA and VA-recognized Veterans Service Organizations stand ready to assist in filing their initial benefit claims properly and at no cost.

Our office, Montgomery County Veterans Service, is a county funded office which provides VA claims services at no charge to the residents of Montgomery County.  Our service officers are accredited with the VA, TVC, VFW, NACVSO and DAV.  Any veteran can look up our accreditations on the VA Office of General Counsel webpage: OGC – Accreditation Search (va.gov).

For further information on VA & State benefits, contact Montgomery County Veterans Service at 936-539-7842 or via email [email protected], and on Facebook at Montgomery County Veterans Service