A New Right-Wing Veterans Donation Scam

[MineralMan]

I got a couple of robo calls yesterday, and tracked them back, thanks to their lame phone number spoofing. The organization that called me is the American Veterans Honor Fund. It's new, and based in Virginia. They're just getting started in scamming people out of their hard-earned money.

Here's what they're up to: The organization claims to be funding veterans who are candidates for public office. Their website offers little information, but has a two-post blog on it. One of those candidates, who may well be behind the scam, is a right-wing militia leader from Ohio. He was thrown out of the only office he has held, but he's back in the race again. To his credit, he admits that he has never served in any branch of the military of the United States, after naming all of his medals and honors from his militia group.

Here's their website:

https://www.americanveteranshonorfund.com/

They don't say their name when they call. My guy said, "Hi! I'm Mark with the veterans." I hung up and back called him and got the organizations name and then Googled it.

Don't be taken in. It's a scam.

As a veteran, I hate this shit!

[secondwind]

1. K&R for exposure

[kimbutgar]

2. I just got that call from a number 323-723-3168 USA Veterans

I told him I just read you are a scam organization, take me off your calling list

[MineralMan]

3. Good job. They'll call back though, you know.

[dalton99a]

4. Kick

[SharonClark]

5. The website shows how blatantly repug it is.

Thanks for the heads up.

[MineralMan]

6. Yes, it's obvious. However, you won't hear the name of the organization

in the robocalls. Most people foolish enough to donate won't look up the website, anyway.

I called the organization's office number, which looks like a one-room office in a business building. I explained why they needed to permanently remove my phone number from their call list. The woman say, "Well, that takes time, so don't expect the calls to stop." I explained further why they needed to remove my number, and explained exactly how it could be done right away in their database.

I also explained that I'm pretty good at spreading the word about scam fund-raising organizations. She promised to get me off the call list within 24 hours. So far, no calls today.

They're really stupid. Instead of blocking their spoofed numbers, there's a recording that plays if you call back on the number on your caller ID. It identifies the organization. That's a bonehead move on their part. It's always worth a try to call the calling number back. If they're doing the VOIP spoofing on the cheap, you can sometimes get through.