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Jury Duty Scam Leads to Identity Theft
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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.
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 on protecting yourself from identity theft, visit:
=} http://www.scambusters.org/Scambusters47.html
~~~
Jury Duty Scam Leads to Identity Theft
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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.
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 on protecting yourself from identity theft, visit:
=} http://www.scambusters.org/Scambusters47.html
~~~
