Jury Duty Scam Leads to Identity Theft

From La Grange Police Dept – Chief Mike Holub
I became aware of this recent scam and wanted to share it with you. Our representatives in the County Court System have already heard about this swindle, and so the Police Department would like to pass it along in hopes of curtailing an attempt in La Grange.

CHIEF MIKE HOLUB: 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.

Preventative 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. For more information, click on the following link: http://www.scambusters.org/juryduty.html Please share this information with your employees, family and friends . . .

Lucy's Note: Several times I have had people call me up for one reason or another and tried to get this kind of information from me. When I don't give the information to them, they hang up. It's becoming a real problem. Has anyone ever tried to scam you?

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