Just before midnight on a weekend in February, Anne–the widow of a veteran in Lincoln County—received a notification from her bank that more than $50,000 had been withdrawn from her account.

Anne isn’t her real name. KLCC agreed to use a pseudonym because she fears retaliation for speaking to the media.

Anne had lost her husband about three months earlier. Now, she thought her identity might have been stolen. She said the incident caused her so much stress she ended up in the emergency room with heart trouble.

“I was so panicked,” she said. “I was like, you’ve got to shut down all my accounts, I didn’t understand.”

The bank told her the U.S. Department of Treasury had emptied her account.

Anne said she didn’t know what to do, so she reached out to Lincoln County Veteran Services Offic

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