Wednesday, November 12, 2014
In honor of the recently passed Veterans Day, the Independent Community Bankers of America® (ICBA) and the Senior Housing Crime Prevention Foundation (SHCPF) have banned together to provide tips on preventing financial abuse for our nation’s elder veterans and their families.
“America’s servicemen and women devoted their lives to ensuring our freedom and making our country a safer place to live. The nation’s community banks are proud to call many of these veterans customers and serve them in cities and towns throughout America,” says John Buhrmaster, ICBA chairman and president and CEO of 1st National Bank of Scotia, N.Y. “ICBA is pleased to work with the Senior Housing Crime Prevention Foundation to provide our veterans with tips on preventing financial abuse, which will hopefully lead to more peace of mind, safety and security when it comes to their financial future. I encourage veterans and their families to meet with their community banker if they have any other questions on this matter.”
ICBA and SHCPF offer the following tips on ways to prevent financial abuse for our nation’s elder veterans:
• Secure all of your valuables in a bank safety deposit box. These valuables can include your Social Security card, passports, credit card account numbers, will and other legal documents, financial statements and medical records.
• Do not give financial information to callers that contact you and claim to be from established organizations such as your bank or credit card companies, especially if they ask you to wire funds or send them private information. If you are concerned about your bank account, contact your local community bank directly.
• Check your bank accounts and bill statements carefully. You can check them online so you can zoom in easily in case you need to make the statement larger for easier reading. Plus, online banking makes it easy to check your transactions on a regular basis. If you notice unauthorized charges, alert your bank immediately.
• Do not give your personal information, such as bank account numbers or PINs, to anyone in a phone call, letter, email, fax or in a text message.
“Protecting our nation’s veterans is a need that must be addressed. These men and women have dedicated their lives to protecting us and SHCPF is dedicated to protecting them now,” said SHCPF Chairman, President and CEO Peter K. Gwaltney.
“Elder financial abuse is a rapidly growing problem in our country and we owe it to our veterans and all of the elderly to stop financial exploitation.”
To support veterans for their service, the Senior Housing Crime Prevention Foundation administers its Veterans Initiative by installing the nationally-acclaimed Senior Crimestoppers program in veterans homes across the country.
Under this initiative, each veteran resident is provided access to an anonymous, toll-free tip line that pays cash rewards up to $1,000 on each crime incident reported and a specially designated personal lockbox to secure their personal items against theft. In addition, the Foundation will provide each state veterans nursing home with its annual Time of Your Life video series for the residents’ enjoyment, and each facility will receive an annual cash contribution for a Wish Comes True grant to be given to select veterans to fulfill one or more life time wishes.
For more information on how to support the Veterans Initiative, visit www.SHCPFoundation.org or www.icba.org.
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