That's a quote from this week's Parade magazine that may be,depending on your paper, on your doorstep in the morning if not delivered early on Saturday like mine is. The title of the article is "Red, White, and Scammed," and it focuses on one person, Diann Traina who was ripped off by an unscrupulous car dealer outside her base in Fayetteville, N.C. You've seen them. These are the low class car dealers that have the big signs that say "No Credit, Bad Credit, No Problem." The article goes on to talk about the insurance, rent, pawn shop and check cashing outlets that prey on military personnel. It has become such a pervasive problem that the The D.O.D. have labeled it a threat to national security.
The truth is the average person in the service is about 19 or 20 years old. I didn't know a whole lot at that age, and if I hadn't had my dad or mom around to take with me on a major purchase, I could have easily been ripped off. That's seems to be what is happening. These young adults haven't yet gained enough experience in some instances to understand that they may be ripped off. It has become such a large problem that the Navy has their lawyers involved going after enterprises and individuals who are ripping off servicemen and women. The Georgia Insurance commissioner is going after unscrupulous insurance agents to the point that insurance companies have paid $70,000,000 in refunds to service persons.
I could go on but I'll just say this; General Petraeus typed "military loans" into Google and got 2.5 million results. The military now requires new recruits to take a personal finance class as a part of basic training. Legal services are now offered to military personnel, and they are encouraged to use these services before they sign anything. The full article.
