December 2007: This scam is spreading fast so
be prepared should you get this call. Most of us take those
summonses for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on
their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of fraud has
surfaced. 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. DO NOT give out any of this information. This
is a new scam to steal your identity.
The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states, including
Oklahoma, Illinois, and Colorado. This (swindle) is particularly
insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to
bully people into giving information by pretending they are with
the court system. The FBI and the federal court system have issued
nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the
fraud. For more information click
here.
