Jury Duty Scam - worth reading

[Craig]

Posted: 5/22/06 at 12:03pm

Just got this and thought I'd post it..


Jury Duty Scam

"This has been checked by Snopes.com (address below) and is indeed a very serious threat. Please pass 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 these 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, 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:
www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp

[SweetQintheLights]

Posted: 5/22/06 at 12:06pm

Wow! Thanks Craig! That could really save a lot of people.

[NYadgal]

Posted: 5/22/06 at 12:07pm

It never ceases to amaze me what some people will do...

Thanks, Craig!

[Unknown User]

Posted: 5/22/06 at 12:47pm

In the past, I had received emails allegedly from my cable company/internet provider stating my internet account was delinquent because they had not received my payment through my CC. First of all, companies notify late payments through snail mail and/or phone calls. Secondly, I paid my net through my cable bill, NOT a separate account. I did not open the email, and immediately called the internet service who assured me that this was not legitimate. I then forwarded the email to them so they could try and track down the scammers.

Nowadays, you have to be wary about everything, and that's a shame since there are so many legitimate, honest businesses/charities, etc out there.

[Jane2]

Posted: 5/22/06 at 12:58pm

Those same fake emails come from your (supposed) bank, ebay, paypal, etc. I get them all the time. If you were to receive a legitimate email from any of those institutions, they would not contain an attachment.

[mominator]

Posted: 5/22/06 at 1:30pm

Wow, just wow! How spooty are some people?

[Magdalene]

Posted: 5/22/06 at 4:34pm

I had someone try this scam with me---I started bombarding them with questions, were they federal or county, etc., and they hung up on me (It helped that I had just served on a jury!)

[romantico]

Posted: 5/22/06 at 4:39pm

Can they really arrest you for not showing up for jury duty? I got a summons a couple years ago. I was in the process of moving & wrote it on the card & sent it back. Never heard from them again. Could I have an arrest warrant out in another state because of this?

[ZONEACE]

Posted: 5/22/06 at 5:51pm

seriously, the things people fall for. NEVER give your Soc. out to anyone, especially over the phone.