Agency battles fleecing of military families

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.omaha.com/article/20100821/NEWS01/708219845#agency-battles-fleecing-of-military-families

Published Saturday August 21, 2010

By Bob Glissmann
WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER

Scammers and financial predators know that members of the military get steady paychecks, won't quit their jobs or get laid off and operate under a culture that strongly encourages them to pay their debts.

For those reasons, says an official with the Better Business Bureau, it's important to educate service members and their families about the potential risks they face — not on the battlefield, but up the street or on the Internet.

“Certain segments of the population are targeted by scams more regularly than others,” said Holly Petraeus, director of the BBB Military Line, from her office in Arlington, Va. “One of them is the elderly. Another is, sadly, the military.”

The Better Business Bureau office that serves Nebraska, South Dakota and southwest Iowa is setting up a BBB Military Line, primarily for those at Offutt Air Force Base near Bellevue.

The formal kickoff of the effort will be in mid-September, when Petraeus speaks at a BBB luncheon in Omaha.

Petraeus is married to Army Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

FULL story & photo at link.