Jury Duty Scam
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.
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.
