New Scam in the US

There is a new scam in the US in several states that I thought you should know about before you give info to them yourself. I checked it out on http://www.snopes.com and it is a true article. In fact I took this directly from the Snopes website where I check out most of the iffy emails I get.


Text copy:

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.

Thanks so much - & I hope you don't mind that I copied & forwarded the above to some friends who are sometimes ripe for these types of scams.

Thank you for the information. I hadn't heard of this scam before.

Breezym I don't mind at all. It is really the property of snope.com where I lifted it. One of my friends told me about it and I checked it out with snopes to make sure it was true before I posted.

htop, I hadn't heard of it either but they are saying it is happening all over the US. If you don't make the call just don't give them personal information. That is the safest way.

Lani

Lani, I have been receiving calls stating that I have been selected to take a survey, participate in research, etc. I have found that most of these calls are designed to obtain personal information about the person receiving the calls. I no longer answer any type of question.

Thanks for the warning! In our area the police put out an alert that a scam was being practiced in our area. It seems that people were called & told they won a lottery from a foreign country & even though no ticket purchase was necessary to win, they had won. Then they were asked their s. securtiy #, bank info so the money could be direct deposited, etc. Unfortunately, these type of scams always seem to affect the elderly people more and was glad to see that the local police put the ad in the paper to prevent others to fall for this scam. I imagine the jury duty one would have been a bit more convincing. Glad I know about it though. Thanks!,
Gemila

I sometimes wonder if the elderly and the poor aren't hit all the harder by all these scams because they can't afford a newspaper to see when warnings are posted. I find it very sad that segments of our society do such terrible things to others. Very sad indeed that they can't do more constructive things with their minds and time.

Unfortunately...that's the power of the almighty dollar.


Thanks for posting this...I'll pass it on as well.