Grace
04-12-2006, 09:32 AM
Please consider passing this on to everyone in your email address book.
It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. Most of
us take those summonses 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.
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
It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. Most of
us take those summonses 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.
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