Military spouses face numerous challenges when their loved one deploys. For months, maybe even a year or longer, they must assume responsibility for everything back home. They must pay the bills, raise the children, write letters, send care packages, take out the trash, fix the car and countless other thankless jobs that they must shoulder on their own. When their loved one is sent to a war zone, those daily sacrifices are compounded by an ever present fear that their spouse may never come home again. The knowledge that their loved one is in harm’s way settles like a heavy cloak on their shoulders and brings a stress and anxiety that they may have never experienced before. We ask much of our troops, and we ask much of our military families as well.

But there are those who are attempting to take advantage of military spouses. A telephone scam is specifically targeting military spouses and preying on their fear for their loved ones. The American Red Cross is reporting that military spouses have been contacted by a person who identifies themselves as a representative of the Red Cross and tells the spouse that her husband has been injured in Iraq and med-evacuated to a hospital in Germany. The caller goes on to say that treatment cannot be started until paperwork is completed and that in order to finish the paperwork and start treatment of her husband’s injuries, the spouse must give the caller her husband’s social security number and date of birth.

If an unsuspecting military spouse, caught in the grip of fear for her husband’s life, gives the requested information, she will find her family a victim of identity theft. The American Red Cross and the military are urging military families not to give out any personal information to unknown individuals over the phone. The Red Cross adds that it does not contact family members about injuries to service members. That information should come from the military and the Department of Defense.

But when a military spouse spends every minute of every day worrying that her husband may be injured or killed, it may be difficult for her to see through the scam when the phone rings. The idea that there are people devious enough to take advantage of military families should immediately sicken all of us. Our military families sacrifice so much to enable our troops to serve and defend this country. We should demand that someone defend those families as well.