Hard upon the heels of the ides of November, a report surfaced that technology has made it possible to scan any Veterans Administration identification card issued since 2004 with a smartphone equipped with a bar code app to obtain the cardholder’s Social Security number. Once the veteran’s SSN appears on the screen of a smartphone belonging to a person with a penchant for rapaciousness, he or she possesses one of the more valuable assets an identity thief can pilfer.

And while the foregoing news is deplorable enough — and clearly constitutes an illegal act — another form of exploitation, albeit a legal one, has also turned up in the news in the week before Thanksgiving. In spite of the fact that Congress passed the Military Lending Act in 2006, which was crafted to protect members of the U.S. armed services from predation by payday lenders, the law is not all-encompassing.

The loopholes in the Military Lending Act are proving to be as wide as a jet parked at the Kellogg Air National Guard Base. Some short-term loans are exempt from its 36 percent interest rate ceiling, including those for more than $2,000, loans with terms of longer than 91 days and auto-title loans with 181-day-plus durations.

Many veterans have gone deeper into debt and, in some cases, lost their homes to foreclosure after taking out loans with exorbitant interest rates. These run as high as 40 percent. Such pressures should not fall on the shoulders of our veterans, and they could not have been what the sponsors of the Military Lending Act had in mind.

Legal Help for Veterans, PLLC fights for veterans rights. We fight to make sure you get the benefits you deserve from the Department of Veterans Affairs. To learn more or contact a veterans lawyer, visit http://www.legalhelpforveterans.com/ or call 800.693.4800

FINRA warned investor never to reveal personal information to an unsolicited caller and never to authorize a transfer of funds at the direction of an unknown person.

Gerri Walsh, a FINRA senior executive, said that if you are not sure if the person you are talking to is a legitimate representative of a brokerage firm, the best course of action is to quickly end the call and then call the firm’s customer service department.

FINRA said that investors who suspect they have been victims of this type of scam should contact their financial institution immediately to report theft through electronic funds transfer. People who believe their identity may have been stolen should follow the Identity Theft action plan available on the website of the Federal Trade Commission.