Jim,
I recently received a message on my cell phone from a lady Named Angela who said she was from the VA and was needing to update my demographic information. I attempted to return the call but it appeared that tis was a cell phone and the voice mail box was full. I tried calling the VA office in Oklahoma City in reference to this call, which the operator told me they had received call concerning this same call. After about an hour and being transferred several times the call was disconnected due to "technical difficulties". My question is, how much fraud is perpetrated against veterans due to the release of our contact information and how common is it?
Reply:
Our global society today has our personal information scattered everywhere. It isn't only veterans, it's everyone.
The theft/loss of information from VA in recent years has not resulted in any invasion of any veterans privacy that I'm aware of. That isn't to say that it isn't serious, only that the VA has done a pretty good job of providing after the fact security that seems to work.
Thieves are everywhere, always have been. Instead of robbing stagecoaches, those same sort of people are trying to gouge you through your cell phone. You did exactly the right thing by reporting it and not giving out any info. You may want to make a formal report to the VA OIG and give them that phone number so they can investigate. http://www.va.gov/oig/contact/default.asp