VA Creates New Fraud Czar to Stop Scams Targeting Veterans: What the VSAFE Act Does

The Veterans Scam And Fraud Evasion Act of 2025, or VSAFE Act, is straightforward: it creates a new, dedicated position within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) focused solely on fighting fraud and scams aimed at veterans. This new role, the Veterans Scam and Fraud Evasion Officer, will centralize the VA’s defense against these attacks, acting as the main point person for prevention, reporting, and response across the entire agency. They will also be the official contact to quickly direct veterans to resources when they need help recovering from a scam, making it easier for veterans to find help fast. Beyond that, the bill includes a minor administrative change, pushing the expiration date for certain limits on pension payments from November 30, 2031, to January 30, 2032—a small two-month extension that keeps the current pension rules in place a little longer.

The New Sheriff in Town: Centralizing Scam Defense

For veterans and their families, this new Officer role (Section 2) means the VA is finally putting one person in charge of cutting through the noise and coordinating an effective defense against sophisticated scammers. The Officer is required to set up clear, consistent guidance for everyone—staff and veterans—on how to spot and report fraud. Think of it like a new, dedicated IT security chief, but for financial and identity protection. They must actively promote the VA’s VSAFE Fraud Hotline and VSAFE.gov website, making sure veterans know exactly where to turn for identity theft help.

Crucially, this Officer is tasked with developing full training programs for VA employees who answer the phones and field reports. If you’ve ever called a government agency after being scammed, you know how frustrating it is when the person on the other end doesn't know where to direct you. This provision aims to fix that by standardizing the response. Furthermore, they are required to track and analyze scam metrics, using data to spot emerging trends early—like a new phishing scheme targeting disability benefits—so the VA can act proactively instead of reactively.

Government-Wide Teamwork

One of the most important aspects of the VSAFE Act is the requirement for the new Officer to coordinate with other major federal players (Section 2). We’re talking about the IRS, the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Social Security Administration (SSA), and the Executive Office of the President. Scams targeting veterans often cross agency lines—a scammer might steal VA benefits and then use that identity information to file a fake tax return. By requiring the VA to work closely with these partners, the bill aims to create a unified, government-wide view of the problem, making it easier for a veteran to report a single incident and have it addressed across multiple agencies at once.

While this centralization is good news for veterans, the bill is careful about bureaucracy creep. It explicitly states that setting up this new Officer position doesn’t allow the VA to hire extra staff beyond what’s already budgeted, nor does it take away any existing authority from the VA’s Inspector General. In short, the VA is being told to better coordinate its existing resources to fight fraud without needing a bigger budget or stepping on the toes of its internal watchdogs. This means the success of the VSAFE Act will hinge entirely on how effectively the VA can reorganize and prioritize its current staff and systems under the new Officer's direction.