by William from NOLA » Tue Mar 21, 2006 11:36 am
This is a real scam. You can check it out for yourselves at the links at the bottom of this message
JURY DUTY SCAM:
It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call.
Most of us take those summons for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of scam has surfaced. Fall for it and your identity could be stolen, reports CBS.
In this con, someone calls pretending to be a court official who threateningly says a warrant has been issued for your arrest because you didn't show up
for jury duty. The caller claims to be a jury coordinator.
If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can
verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Sometimes they even ask for credit card numbers.
Give out any of this information and bingo! Your identity just got stolen.
The scam has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma, Illinois, and Colorado. This (scam) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation
over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they're with the court system. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.
Check it out here:
http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp
Check it out here also:
http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/j/ ... y_scam.htm
I think to catch these guys, if you ever get a call, just ask them for a number to call back because you have some quick emergency to take care of.
[quote]This is a real scam. You can check it out for yourselves at the links at the bottom of this message
JURY DUTY SCAM:
It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call.
Most of us take those summons for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of scam has surfaced. Fall for it and your identity could be stolen, reports CBS.
In this con, someone calls pretending to be a court official who threateningly says a warrant has been issued for your arrest because you didn't show up
for jury duty. The caller claims to be a jury coordinator.
If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can
verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Sometimes they even ask for credit card numbers.
Give out any of this information and bingo! Your identity just got stolen.
The scam has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma, Illinois, and Colorado. This (scam) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation
over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they're with the court system. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.
Check it out here: [url]http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp[/url]
Check it out here also: [url]http://www.truthorfiction.com/rumors/j/jury_duty_scam.htm[/url]
[/quote]
I think to catch these guys, if you ever get a call, just ask them for a number to call back because you have some quick emergency to take care of.