A new telephone fraud has surfaced that attempts to take advantage of people who might already be feeling worried because they skipped out on jury duty — avoiding a summons. It also can victimize people who are surprised to learn and be duped into believing they didn’t received a jury summons (that was never officially sent).
The offender/caller claims to be a jury DUTY 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. If you a victim gives out the information, the offender has the information need to proceed with an identity theft-related crime.
The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states, including Illinois, Oklahoma, and Colorado, Arizona. This fraud 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.
More info …
fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm