The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has announced the launch of VSAFE, which stands for Veteran Scam and Fraud Evasion. The initiative was revealed at Secretary McDonough’s press conference last Friday by VA Deputy Chief of Staff Maureen Elias, an Army veteran and military spouse whose own young family was once a victim of veteran-targeted fraud. VSAFE includes a coordinated online hub of resources that utilizes insights from across VA so that the Department speaks with one voice regarding fraud prevention. 

VSAFE cultivates ongoing partnerships within VA and with outside stakeholders and federal enforcement agencies to spearhead the VA response to potentially illegal actions against veterans, their families, survivors, and caregivers. The resources also provide quick and easy information about recognizing scams and fraud attempts. VSAFE offers further help when fraud has been experienced and/or needs to be reported.

Thus far during this fiscal year, VA has reportedly investigated nearly 12,500 cases of potential benefits fraud and provided support to 1,164 victims of benefits scams. Some of that caseload is linked to the new military toxic exposure benefits legislation signed into law in August 2022, which for the first time provides financial compensation for a host of illnesses linked to war zone toxic exposures.

To read more about Maureen Elias’s personal experience with fraud, click here. To access the VSAFE webpage, click here.