Jury Duty Scam

[The Conch Man Past Goumba President & BigFrank's Cigar Buddy! Find all posts View Profile Close The Conch Man]

Amazing how many people give out their SS numbers so trustingly, but anyway...


This is from my friend and her husband up North & her hubby is a lawyer ~~



This has been verified on Snopes.com (link listed below) and by
the FBI ~~ (their links are also included below).

Please pass this on to everyone in your email address book. 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. Fall for it and your identity could be stolen, reports CBS. 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. 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.

Check it out here:

http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp

http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel05/092805.htm

http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm

Mark Rouleau
rouleau-law@insightbb.com
Law Office of Mark Rouleau
5301 E. State St. - 215D
Rockford, IL 61108
(815) 229-7246
fax (815) 229-7251

[arlene22 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close arlene22]

Ooooh, sneaky! Thanks for the warning.

[Luanne Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Luanne]

I was given this warning while sitting in the jury waiting room at the superior court. It was given by the judge who basically excused us for the day. So, yeah, I think it's true.

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Last time I had Jury duty, one guy wouldn't give them his SS #. When told they needed it to pay him, he said when they owe him money they will get it. I never give out my SS number unless I'm sure I'm going to be paid for something.

[shopgirl Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close shopgirl]

Thanks for the heads up on this one, Conch Man. That is sneaky and entirely easy to understand how someone could fall for it. The criminals are getting more wise as to how to scare us into giving them information we would ordinarily not even consider sharing with someone on the phone.

[mshatty Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close mshatty]

This is NOT a scam, Beware

Understand that when you report to jury duty, at least in Harris County, Texas (Houston) you are also being checked out for any outstanding warrants and convictions. Most states have laws that do not allow felons to serve as jurors so the jury court people check out the criminal background of every one of the potential jurors.

On one of my prior jury duty reporting, a lady next to me had a hot check warrant out for her arrest that she didn't even know about. The judge called her up and a couple of deputies and the judge took her into his chambers. She came out white as a sheet. Turned out that the lady had an automatic draft against her bank account with an exercise place. The lady had moved to a new bank and informed the exercise place who didn't take all the steps to draft her new account. There was one NSF draft and they filed a hot check charge against her. The judge was great. He got the asst DA to drop the charge and got it all straighten out for the lady right then and there. He then told all of us about how all of us had been checked out in the police records for outstanding warrants and convictions. Surprise!

[camachinist Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close camachinist]

Heh, I got two sheriffs and one helicopter down the street so I'd invite the "coordinator" to send them on by, since they know very well where I live
I can only speak for our neck of the woods, but every single one of the folks who's written my wife a hot check has had their check turned into the DA and has gotten a nice call from law enforcement. As a business colleague of mine is always saying, "I hate deadbeats". Haven't seen anyone accosted during jury selection however...

Interestingly, jury duty and voting seem to be quite in bed. Vote and get a jury summons. And so it goes in the PROC (People's Republic of California)

Pat

[tonyg Goomba & Super Moderator Find all posts View Profile Close tonyg]

Another scam they tried here is to pose as a utility company calling and threatening to shut off the utility unless an immediate credit card payment is made. The electricity providers here do not accept credit card payments but apparently some people don't know that.
One of the negatives about voting or even registering to vote here is that you also get on the Jury list.