Veterans Targeted in Military Benefits Scam, Part 1

The Perfect Scam

AARP

True Crime, Aarp, Fraud, Society & Culture, Scam, Crime, Bobsullivan

4.5 • 980 Ratings

🗓️ 1 March 2024

⏱️ 29 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The men and women who bravely fight for our nation are too often the target of financial criminals. After serving four years clearing roadside bombs in Iraq, Michael returns home and is diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. A divorce and a series of medical emergencies leave him struggling financially and searching for some relief. Michael finds the Voyager Financial Group, which offers lump sums for military disability benefits, but Michael soon finds out the scheme will leave him in even worse shape than before.

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week on The Perfect Scam.
0:04.0	I was in a bad situation financially.
0:07.0	I couldn't make the payments anymore.
0:09.0	Cost of living had gone up.
0:11.0	I wasn't earning a lot of money, I mean just one thing after another.
0:16.0	And I think that I may have just run some internet searches, run some Google searches for financial relief for veterans to see what was
0:26.4	available, and one of the results was for a company called Voyager Financial Group.
0:40.0	Welcome back to the perfect scam. I'm your host Bob Sullivan.
0:44.3	There are roughly 16 million veterans in the US today
0:49.0	and they all deserve our unending gratitude and protection. Our veterans are targeted by
0:57.1	criminals in terrible and revolting ways for reasons I hope you'll understand better after today's episode. We're going to
1:05.2	meet Michael Herring, who served in the Iraq war and now lives about 90 minutes north of
1:10.6	Denver, Colorado. He was targeted by a criminal specifically because he's
1:16.4	a veteran and because he had PTSD and was getting a disability payment which is just enough to make anyone's blood boil.
1:25.0	But Michael is just one of many.
1:29.0	Before we get to the scam, we're going to talk for a bit about Michael's time at Iraq because we should
1:35.3	always listen to our vets and because it really is an important part of the crime. So here's
1:41.4	Michael who signed up like so many did after the terrorist attacks of 9-11.
1:47.0	Well, I had always had kind of a desire to join the military. I can't really explain it in one
1:57.8	particular reason. Naturally after 9-11 I think a lot of people were hit with a sense of patriotic duty.
2:07.0	Aside from that, my family has a distinguished history of military service.
2:15.6	So my grandfather was in the Army in World War II.
	...

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