[PBARC] Jury Duty Scam

[WOLF, EARNEST G]

(at least someone checked it out with snopes first!)

 


Jury Rigged - I checked with Snopes to verify authenticity....it is true. 


Most  of us take those 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 News. 

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 and 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 websites, warning consumers about the fraud. 

Check it out here: 
http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp <http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp>  
Send this on to your family and friends!!  IMPORTANT!!