April 18th, 2012 Is It Jury Duty Or Just A Scam?
By the AllClear ID Team
George here from the AllClear ID investigation team. One of the latest scams going around is the “jury duty†scam.
How it works: scammers make phishing phone calls to random people claiming they work for the local court. They tell the person on the phone that he either missed jury duty, or he is being considered a prospective juror. For either reason the scammer will request personal information, such as home address, date of birth, Social Security number, even credit card numbers so the judge can clear the warrant that has been issued. They ask for the same information when they claim they are calling the consumer as a prospective juror. Victims of this scam will claim they never received a jury duty notification. The scammer then asks the victim for confidential information to verify the notification was mailed to the correct address, or to make sure they are calling the right person.
The jury duty scam has been reported by the FBI for a few years across several states. The latest incident happened in early December in Kendall County, Illinois.
If you do get a call from a so-called court worker, remember that official ones are not supposed to ask for Social Security numbers, or other similar private information. In fact, most courts communicate with consumers through snail mail via the US Postal Service. Protecting yourself is simple: Never give personal information out when you receive a phone call. When in doubt, you can call the organization requesting private information directly by finding the phone number in your local yellow pages or online at its website. For court-related issues, always call the county clerk’s office to verify that it is trying to reach you.
Views expressed are the personal views of the author, and do not represent the views of the National Foundation for Credit Counseling, its employees, its members, or its clients.