How to Find Out if Someone is Lying About Military Service

Do you have someone you need to vet if they were in the military before giving them a service? It can be hard to tell if someone was in the military, especially because the government takes some time to process information of someone formally in the army. However, you can use some services to check someone’s military status and to find out if someone was in the military or is a respectfully discharged veteran.

Such methods include:

Defense Finance and Accounting Service (DFAS)

Exterior of DFAS Rome branch

Was established in 1991 to manage Department Of Defense finances. DFAS is responsible mainly for handling military pay. With this information at hand, you can tell if someone is in the military or not. However, since this is personal and sensitive information, you need to have the person’s social security number and/or their date of birth.

In case the person you are vetting does not offer you enough information to access their financial records, consider another method such as the Freedom of Information Act Request.

Freedom of Information Act Request (FOIA)

Since 1967, the U.S. government encourages transparency between its citizens and the government by enabling them to access information freely. Here, you can check someone’s military status through a simple procedure such as:

  • Filling out an FOIA request letter.
  • Emailing a request to the military agents.
  • Waiting for a response from the agency involved.

This varies depending on the agency you are using or even the information of the person you would like to vet.

DD-214 Certificate

This is a certificate of release or discharge from active duty. The United States Department of Defense gives this certificate when someone is discharged from the military or retires. They come in two major forms. The short version contains basic information while the long version is more detailed. This, however, can be forged. It is important to distinguish minor details, such as official verification, grammatical errors, and service dates. Military ID would work best in place of this certificate and save you the hustle of confirming if it is legitimate or not.

Use a military online background check

This is one of the simplest methods to verify if someone was truly in the military. Entails just a click of a link on your computer. If someone claims not to have time and urgently needs your services, run a background check through sites such as truthfinder.com, beenverified.com, or peoplefinders.com These sites offer detailed information on all you need to know about someone.

Using the above methods ensures you can verify someone served or is serving in the army. Alternatively, one can also ask simple questions that people in the army chant all the time, such as their classification number, unit, and location.

In conclusion, ensure you gain the correct information about someone before getting hired or involved in the services you offer.