Potential scam floating around

As some of you are aware, your Grand Knight is on the Beaverton Draft Board.  We're all well past draft age; however there is a new scam you should share with friends and family, and so I have decided to repost this letter I just got from the National Director of the Selective Service Administration:

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January 10, 2020

Greetings State Directors and Local Board Members:

I hope this message finds you well and on your way to a superb New Year. The year 2020 is beginning with an influx of current events that have captivated our attention as a nation and impacted our Agency. I’d like to bring you up to date about some of the ways this has affected us.

As you are likely aware, last Friday morning, January 3^rd, the Selective Service IT team notified us about a surge in website activity. Our social media team verified that there was a high volume of twitter traffic resulting from false allegations that a Draft had begun or was imminent. We immediately posted statements on social media platforms that the Agency was conducting business as usual and that any resumption of a Draft can only occur when Congress passes and the President signs legislation initiating a Draft. Never-the-less, our website did receive a surge of hits while IT was in the process of making standard upgrades. This caused the Agency to scale back and meter on the amount of simultaneous website visits it could process. This slowed processing, but prevented an actual website crash.  This was an unfortunate “perfect storm” of events but we’re now operating normally. We just wanted you to understand what happened.

This week, a series of fraudulent text messages are being circulated throughout the country informing individuals they have been selected for a military draft. This also resulted in a flurry of inquiries from the public and the media. The Department of Homeland Security is investigating the origin of these messages.

Finally, there has been chatter about the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) and the Selective Service. The Higher Education Act requires that men to be registered with Selective Service to receive Federal student aid. FAFSA forms provide men a quick and easy method to register, comply with the law, and secure access to all the benefits linked to registration. We have experienced a number of social media posts suggesting that the FAFSA form contains deceptively fine print to trick registering men with Selective Service. That is completely untrue and mean spirited.

These examples of misinformation have generated increased public and media interest in the Selective Service, registration and related issues. I am providing this update so that you are aware of the high volume of misinformation being promulgated and in many cases the misunderstanding it generates. The silver lining of all this activity and interest in our Agency is that it allows us the opportunity to remind men how important the agency is to our nation’s readiness and how important it is that men register at SSS.gov. Should you be contacted by the media about any of these issues, please direct all inquiries to the SSS National Headquarters public affairs office at 703-605-4093 or 703-605-4103.

Again, Thank you for your service to our country, this Agency, and the mission.

Sincerely,

Don Benton

Director