Scam alert: Jury Duty Call

Subscriber Helen Rogers kindly sent this alert. This scam started in 2005, but not all of us are aware of it.

This has been verified by the FBI (their link is also included below). It 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. Give out any of this information and bingo; your identity was just stolen.

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.

Check it out here: http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm

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

Thanks, Helen!

Vet your email

From time to time I receive email from friends and family warning me about scams or other issues of concern. For instance, here's one I just received from my friend Helen:

Something to think about & maybe make a change?

Be careful how you list names on your cell phone! This lady has changed her habit of how she lists her names on her mobile phone after her handbag was stolen. Her handbag which contained her cell phone, credit card, wallet, etc. was stolen. Twenty (20) minutes later when she called her husband from a pay phone telling him what had happened, hubby says 'I received your text asking about our PIN Number and I've replied a little while ago.' When they rushed down to the bank, the bank staff told them all the money was already withdrawn.

The thief had actually used the stolen cell phone to text 'hubby' in the contact list and got hold of the PIN Number. Within 20 minutes he had withdrawn all the money from the bank account. Moral of the lesson: Do not disclose the relationship between you and the people in your contact list. Avoid using names like Home, Honey, Hubby, Sweetheart, Dad, Mom, etc.

And very importantly, when sensitive info is being asked thru texts, CONFIRM by calling back. Also, when you're being texted by friends or family to meet them somewhere, be sure to call back to confirm that the message came from them. If you don't reach them, be very careful about going places to meet 'family and friends' who text you. Someone could be setting you up to be burglarized, or worse.

PLEASE PASS THIS ON.

Whenever I receive such a message. I always check with snopes.com to see whether it's an urban myth. Often it is, but this alert is apparently legitimate. Another helpful site is http://www.scambusters.org/.