Jury duty scam

[shameem]

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Here's a new twist scammers are using to commit identity theft: the jury duty scam. Here's how it works:
The scammer calls claiming to work for the local court and claims you've failed to report for jury duty. He tells you that a warrant has been issued for your arrest.
The victim will often rightly claim they never received the jury duty notification. The scammer then asks the victim for confidential information for "verification" purposes.
Specifically, the scammer asks for the victim's Social Security number, birth date, and sometimes even for credit card numbers and other private information - exactly what the scammer needs to commit identity theft.
So far, this jury duty scam has been reported in Michigan, Ohio, Texas, Arizona, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington state.
It's easy to see why this works. The victim is clearly caught off guard, and is understandably upset at the prospect of a warrant being issued for his or her arrest. So, the victim is much less likely to be vigilant about protecting their confidential information.
In reality, court workers will never call you to ask for social security numbers and other private information. In fact, most courts follow up via snail mail and rarely, if ever, call prospective jurors.
Action: Never give out your Social Security number, credit card numbers or other personal confidential information when you receive a telephone call.
This jury duty scam is the latest in a series of identity theft scams where scammers use the phone to try to get people to reveal their Social Security number, credit card numbers or other personal confidential information.
It doesn't matter *why* they are calling - all the reasons are just different variants of the same scam.
Protecting yourself is simple: Never give this info out when you receive a phone call.

[colinsmx3]

Thats retarded.... I would say just send a cop to my house! You don't give info over the phone unless you have something wrong with you!

[Mnemonic]

Only people who don't think would fall for this. 1 they never contact via phone for jury duty you get a letter. 2 How would the court system even have your number to call and tell you?

Dumb

[fowljesse]

There are generations of people who grew up in a time when people didn't do things like this.
When I was a teen, I got a job at a telemarketing scam, and purposely didn't make any sales, except once, when an old guy bought the scripted speil. I was very disappointed.
I was, of course eventually fired for only making one sale (as well as ridiculed). A couple of days later, I called (I don't remember whom), and had them shut down, and the 2 main guys arrested.
It was really sad how many people fell for it. They had lists that they bought, of people likely to be scammed, and people who had been scammed before. They were all old people.

[mitmaks]

You have to be retarded to give someone a S.S number over the phone.

[Daninski]

Elderly folk have paid their dues and deserve to be left in peace. Scammers like that should be locked up with a big over sexed guy named Bubba who's really in to doing it dry. I have an ex grandmother (EX's side) who got scammed out of thousands by her church. I guess getting with choir boys isn't enough anymore. Shamefull.