WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
- Scammers are posing as military or government representatives and demanding payment from families arranging veterans’ funerals.
- Military funeral honors are free, and legitimate representatives will not request a payment or deposit.
- One scammer demanded $1,500 through Apple Pay or Zelle while threatening to cancel a veteran’s military honors.
- Families should hang up, contact their funeral director and report scam calls to federal or Army authorities.
Scammers are targeting grieving families as they arrange funerals for recently deceased veterans, prompting an urgent warning from an Army Casualty Assistance Center.
The scheme exploits confusion about military funeral honors and pressures families to hand over money for services that are provided at no cost.
The Army office is reminding families that military honors at funerals are free. No legitimate representative will call seeking a payment or deposit before those honors can be scheduled or performed.
Donell Bowser, casualty supervisor with the Casualty Assistance Center at Fort Bragg, North Carolina, said funeral homes have reported troubling calls received by veterans’ families.
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The reports have come from funeral homes in the surrounding community and throughout the southeast.
According to Bowser, the callers pose as members of the armed forces, representatives of an honor guard or government employees.
That false appearance of official authority is then used to demand immediate payment from families already dealing with the death of a veteran.
The scammers seek money through credit cards or money transfer applications. They claim the payment represents a refundable insurance policy connected to the military honors planned for the funeral.
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The scheme also includes a threat designed to force families into acting quickly. Callers tell relatives that the veteran’s military honors will be canceled unless the requested payment is made.
In one case brought to Bowser’s office, a scammer demanded that a family send $1,500. The requested payment was to be made through Apple Pay or Zelle.
From the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency:
In August 1950, Taylor was a member of Company C, 2nd Battalion, 24th Infantry Regiment, 25th Infantry Division in South Korea. On August 11, 1950, his regiment encountered a Korean People’s Army unit near the village of Haman. Taylor’s company was ordered to move southwest, where they were ambushed and forced to disperse. In the days following, the battalions of 24th Infantry Regiment consolidated their positions, reorganized and began accounting for their Soldiers. After several days of checking adjoining units, aid stations and field hospitals, Taylor was reported as killed in action on August 12, 1950, but his remains were not recovered.
On January 6, 1951, an Army Graves Registration Service search and recovery team recovered a set of unidentified remains near the village of Haman. The remains, which could not be identified, were interred in United States Military Cemetery Masan in South Korea, as Unknown X-213 Masan.
In February 1954, the Central Identification Unit in Kokura, Japan, examined Unknown X-213 Masan. Unable to make an identification, the remains were declared unidentifiable in April 1955 and buried as an Unknown in the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific, known as the Punchbowl, in Honolulu.
In 2016, research into unresolved losses and unknowns remains from the Korean War led researchers to conclude that Unknown X-213 could likely be identified. The unknown had been recovered in the area where Taylor went missing. DPAA disinterred Unknown X-213 in June 2017 and sent the remains to the laboratory for analysis. To identify Taylor’s remains, scientists from DPAA used as dental and anthropological analysis, as well as circumstantial evidence. Taylor was
“The key red flag is when they ask about paying anything because it’s free,” Bowser said. His warning gives families a straightforward way to identify the scheme before money changes hands.
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Bowser recommends that anyone receiving such a call hang up rather than continue speaking with the caller.
The family member should then report what happened to the funeral home handling the veteran’s arrangements.
The funeral director is always the main point of contact for the family, Bowser said. That director is also responsible for scheduling military honors, meaning families should not rely on unsolicited callers claiming that payment is required.
The Department of Veterans Affairs also continuously warns veterans to remain vigilant about scammers seeking to exploit benefits they have earned.
Requests for payment through unusual or unconventional methods are among the key indicators that a supposed official demand may actually be fraudulent.
Those questionable payment methods include wire transfers, Bitcoin, prepaid debit cards and gift cards.
Families and other individuals who encounter scam calls can report them to the Federal Trade Commission.
Reports can be submitted through the commission’s website at reportfraud.ftc.gov.
The Army Criminal Investigation Division said it does not have an open investigation into scams targeting families that are arranging military funeral honors. That does not prevent people from reporting suspected activity to the division.
Anyone who wants to alert the Army Criminal Investigation Division can file a report through its website at www.cid.army.mil/tips.
The available reporting options give families a path to notify federal or Army authorities after rejecting a suspicious demand.
The central warning from the Casualty Assistance Center is simple: military funeral honors do not come with a bill.
Families who are told otherwise should end the call and work directly through the funeral director responsible for arranging those honors.
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