On Tuesday, state Attorney General Ashley Moody reminded Florida veterans and service members that the Florida Veterans Legal Helpline is available to help protect against fraud, identify theft and other legal issues.
Last November, the attorney general’s Florida Military and Veteran Assistance Program and Bay Area Legal Services’ Florida Veterans Legal Helpline partnered to bolster ongoing efforts to protect Florida veterans and service members. With the recent one-year anniversary of the partnership, Moody encouraged service members and veterans to continue using the helpline for essential services and benefits tailored to protect our military community.
“Our Florida veterans and service members deserve the quality and accessible legal support at any moment. This partnership provides coordination and improves efforts to best address scams, identity theft or other attempts that take advantage of our service members, veterans and their families. We will continue to stand up and protect our service members who would do the same for us,” Moody said.
In November 2019, Moody signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Florida Veterans Legal Helpline. The MOU outlines:
- Coordinating bilateral training about the missions and responsibilities of MVAP and Helpline programs;
- Building a network of mutual referral services and continually build upon the network to ensure veterans and service members are provided the best resources to address legal concerns and scams; and
- Conducting outreach to inform and educate current and former military members about how to spot fraud and where to turn for assistance if targeted by scammers.
Since the start of the partnership, more than 150 referrals from MVAP have been sent to the Helpline, which provides brief advice and counsel to those who qualify. The partnership collaborated and trained the MVAP and Helpline teams to identify military consumers who need assistance.
MVAP educates service members and veterans about scams and what can be done to avoid falling victim. Members of the MVAP team work directly with military service members and veterans who have been targeted by scams in an effort to resolve any consumer protection related issues. To contact MVAP, call 1(866) 9NO-SCAM.
The Helpline provides assistance to veterans on a range of legal issues, such as family law, housing and veterans benefits. The Helpline number is 1(866) 486-6161.
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