Posted on 05/03/2007 12:31:09 PM PDT by Clint N. Suhks
Jury Duty Scam (Please Widely Disseminate)
This has been verified by the FBI (Their link is also included below). Please Widely Disseminate.
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. 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. 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.
http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel05/092805.htm
Apparently this scam is becoming more and more pervasive. My friend has asked me to forward it to as many people as I can.
I hope FReeRepublic doesn't mind me forwarding it to all my FRiends.
I heard about this about a year ago.
According to snopes. it’s the real deal.
http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp
“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.”
If you are dumb enough to give out your SSN over the phone...you deserve what happens.
(from the “stupidity should hurt” files)
Thanks Clint for the heads up.
Is this back again? Its amazing how something like this will cycle a few times before people get wise. And some scams never seem to die. I think the one where they “found” some money and need some of your money as a guarentee before they share it with you dates from 10,000 BC originally was done with goats. :)
BTW, that is the coolest picture of President Bush on your home page - I thought about turning my monitor sideways so I could use it as wall paper.
Its not just happening with jury duty. I am a college student and got a phone call a few months ago talking about unpaid student loans and when I told them I was sure I didn’t have any they asked for my social security number and birthdate along with couple other questions I can’t remember.
I told them I didn’t give that kind of information out over the phone and I politely told them goodbye on the chance that maybe they were legit.
It had to have been someone local to me trying to pull that scam I guess because who else knows that I go to school and knows my phone number. I guess it can be bought online but still.
Clever scam ping.
Your FBI friend isn’t giving out the whole scam. The scammers are using Vonage-like VOIP internet phones to makes these calls.
This matters because some of the smaller firms’ internet phones allow the owner to program in the desired Caller ID name/number of their choice.
Of course, the scammers take advantage of that “feature” to choose insidious phone numbers and names.
So you’ll get a call from the “Montgomery Courthouse” or “Judge Wapner’s Office” or whatever on your Caller ID, making the scam appear even more “legit” in appearance.
BUMP!
also is it legal for my college to use my social security number as my login number for all my accounts. I hate it but can’t do anything about it. I have to use the number everywhere.
Heck..., I haven’t seen my mail in two years. I might have one of those there...
By the way, many insurance companies now offer a rider to homeowners’ polices to insure against identity theft. My agent called and told me about it and I signed up.
Interesting. Thanks for that info.
Wow! I'm sure he knows that but I'll e-mail that back to him.
Thanks!
Just one more example of why we don’t answer the phone at home unless we recognize the number via caller ID.
if we don’t, you can talk to the box.
If you are dumb enough to give out your SSN over the phone...you deserve what happens.
Right.
Maybe we should then just shoot people with a bit of dementia, who are old enough to naturally be compelled to be polite and cooperative to a voice on the phone and unable to just hang up.......AND part of the age group comprising the list that this kind of scammers have...../s off
Finally, a thread where my tagline fits right in...
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