Jury Duty Scam
Most of us take the summons for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and menacing scam has surfaced.
In this scam, the fraudster calls your home pretending to be a court official who threateningly says a warrant has been issued for your arrest because you did not 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 (SSN#) and date of birth (DOB) so that he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant.
When you give out your SSN# and DOB, you are giving away your identity, and the scammer will happily take your identity and exploit it to their financial advantage.
The jury duty scam has been reported in 11 states. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites warning consumers about the fraud.
Play It Safe
• Court systems already have your SSN# and DOB and will not ask you for this information.
• Hang up on the phone call, look up the phone number for your local courthouse and ask to speak with a court official about your jury summons.
Source: www.snopes.com
