| Most of us take summonses for jury duty | | | | victims are clearly caught off guard, and are |
| seriously, but enough people skip out on | | | | understandably upset at the prospect of an |
| their civic duty that a new ominous scam has | | | | arrest warrant being issued. It preys upon |
| surfaced in the last several years. This new | | | | people's general unquestioning acceptance of |
| "jury duty" scam is the latest in a series of | | | | authority and willingness to cooperate in |
| identity theft "phishing schemes". Fall for | | | | order to extract from them sensitive |
| it, and whammo, your identity has been | | | | information. |
| stolen. | | | | |
| | | | How to Avoid Falling Victim to 'Jury Duty' |
| The first jury duty scam was reported in | | | | Scams: |
| upper New York State in 2001. Since then | | | | |
| it's been reported in at least 13 additional | | | | Be assured that court workers will very |
| states, including Michigan, Ohio, Texas, | | | | rarely, if ever, telephone to say you've |
| Colorado, Arizona, California, Maryland, | | | | missed jury duty, or that they are assembling |
| Illinois, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, | | | | juries and need to pre-screen those who might |
| Minnesota, Oregon and Washington State. | | | | be selected to serve on them. So dismiss as |
| | | | fraudulent any phone calls of this nature. |
| This 'jury duty' scheme might best be | | | | Keep in mind that about the only time you |
| categorized as a "social engineering" scam | | | | would ever hear, by telephone (rather than by |
| and works something like this: | | | | mail), anything having to do with jury |
| | | | service, would be after you've mailed back |
| Con artists contact people by phone to assert | | | | your completed questionnaire, and even then |
| that those they've targeted have evaded jury | | | | only rarely. |
| duty and warrants are being issued for their | | | | |
| arrest. When the victims rightly protest | | | | This latest scam reinforces, once again, that |
| that they've never received such jury duty | | | | you should never give out bank account, |
| notification, the scammer goes after what he | | | | social security, or credit card numbers over |
| really wants, (for verification purposes | | | | the phone if you didn't initiate the call ~ |
| only, of course) which is his pigeons' | | | | whether it be to someone trying to sell you |
| personal and financial information. Under | | | | something or to someone who claims to be from |
| threat of being hauled off to jail unless | | | | a bank or government department. If such |
| they succeed in straightening out this | | | | callers insist upon "verifying" such |
| terrible mess, many people, (who would | | | | information with you, have them read the data |
| otherwise be more wary about what they reveal | | | | to you from their notes, with you verifying |
| of their personal data), will find themselves | | | | it, rather than the other way around. |
| reeling off their birth dates, social | | | | |
| security and credit card numbers in an effort | | | | And a word to the wise ~ Carefully examine |
| to convince their callers that the | | | | your credit card and bank account statements |
| notification had never arrived, or were never | | | | every month, keeping an eye peeled for |
| meant for them in the first place. | | | | unauthorized charges. If you notice anything |
| | | | you didn't approve, challenge it immediately! |
| It's easy to see how this might work. The | | | | |