MIDLAND, Texas — "We’re seeing scammers who are calling our veterans, texting our veterans, emailing our veterans about the availability of the vaccine and how to get it quicker. VA never does anything like that," said James Douglas, West Texas VA associate director.
The West Texas veteran population needs to be on the lookout.
In the last few weeks, many veterans across the US and in West Texas have been taken advantage of.
"We here in VA have vaccine that we’re going to be able to get to all our veterans and (we're going to) vaccinate them in the proper manner. Some concerns are that some of these things that may be being offered in the outside may not be very safe for our veterans. We can validate the fact that we have Moderna vaccine and that’s going to be safe to be able to give our veterans and we don’t want them to be falling prey to things that may hurt them," Douglas said.
The VA said veterans should be hesitant of any person offering a COVID-19 vaccine in exchange for a full social security number, personal information or banking information.
In order for veterans getting care from the VA to get the vaccine, they need to call or receive a call about an appointment set up from one phone number and one phone number only.
432-268-2564
There are several ways veterans can contact the VA to make sure they’re not being scammed.
"Call into that scheduling line we’ve given them, call their PACT teams (patient aligned care team) to be able to talk about that as well. Also we’ve got a program that’s called my healthy vet, where we have got information that we can communicate through email with our veterans about it too," Douglas said.
And if you’re still concerned, you can get up to date information on the VA’s webpage about vaccine reminders.
You can sign up for alerts here.