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BBB warns of website scam targeting soldiers

ARLINGTON, Va. — The Better Business Bureau Military Line is sharing information from the U.S. Army's Criminal Investigation Command, warning about a new website scam where criminals are attempting to take advantage of soldiers and their families.

The "My Army Benefits" website at usmilitarybenifit.org is a fraudulent site designed to "collect soldiers' Army knowledge online, email accounts and passwords." The site also falsely claims that "the U.S. military has granted access to unclaimed and accumulated benefits for active duty soldiers, and that benefits not claimed within the stipulated period will be available for claims after 60 months," according to investigators.

The website is not affiliated or endorsed by the U.S. Army. The Army's official website is "MyArmyBenefits."

"Official military websites will all have the .mil domain name," said BBB Military Line director Brenda Linnington. "Any other domain extension should be a red flag."

Other red flags include unsolicited emails or text messages; spelling, punctuation and grammar errors; requests for private information such as email addresses or passwords.

Fraudulent websites come and go quickly (and it appears this one may have been taken down already), but others pop up in their place. Service personnel, family members and veterans need to be especially alert to scams that target them.

"Unfortunately, we hear about new ones almost every day," said Linnington.

CIC provided the following advice for anyone who has received correspondence from the My Army benefits website or provided information through it:

• Do not log in to the website;
• Do not respond to any emails;
• Stop all contact if you have previously responded to any emails; and
• Immediately contact your local information assurance office if you accessed the website from a government computer or system.