Beware: Jury Duty Scam

[X5Jay]

It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. 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. 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.

http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp

[fln8tive]

We are on every kind of do not call list there is, but if one squeaks through, I just ask them for the "last four of their social" and the conversation is just about over.