Jury duty scam

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ncjohn

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Forgive me if this has been previously posted, but I did not find it in a search and it is valuable information about a nasty scam that has cropped up.

In this con, someone calls pretending to be a court official who threateningly says a warrant has been issued for your arrest because you didn’t show up for jury duty. 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 just got stolen.

The scam has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma , Illinois , and Colorado . This (scam) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they’re with the court system.

Further information, and verification of this, can be found at Snopes.com snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp
 
Wow how interesting and sad! I can’t believe scammers like this exist… it’s just disgusting!
makes me mad.:mad: because I know there are so many innocent people would would fall into traps like that.
 
That is horrible!!! I guess the best answer would be… Oh sorry I will have to call you back. Can I get your number so I can call you back with the info… then call your local police and give them the number.
 
thank you for posting this has anyone checked it out with snopes to see if it is really happening?
 
So the appropriate response should be, “Come and get me! Nanananananana, can’t catch me!” followed by giving them the raspberries.
 
chicago said:
So the appropriate response should be, “Come and get me! Nanananananana, can’t catch me!” followed by giving them the raspberries.
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Or, if one wanted to take all the fun out of it and be civil, possibly; “If you are who you say you are, you would already have that information available.”

I personally prefer BlestOne’s approach of asking if you can have their number so you can call the info back to them, then giving the number to the police if they give you one.
 
ncjohn said:
The scam has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma , Illinois , and Colorado . This (scam) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending they’re with the court system.
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Ive got several different ones over the past few years, the latest was two weeks ago. ( apparently I’ve won the lottery several times, even though I don’t remember doing it)
Apparently a girl in Russia wants me to help her live here, and we shall set up home and be like a couple.
She was very good at trying to write bad English, problem is the picture attachments showed me she was having a better time that I was.😛

She was at a beach hotel relaxing, and I was here freezing cold, she didn’t look like the poor little girl lost type.

So anyway did a search of the original email, and yes it’s a scam, @seasilvertv.info

If you get one with seasilvertv.info beware, unless you want a Russian bride and an empty pocket, oh and for some reason or other, they’re always 25.
 
The appropiate answer would be: If you know my number and are from the court then you must know my address. Then I would say send the forms to my address. If they say they don’t know my address then I would tell them how if they work for the court they can look it up the same way they would look up an address to send me the initial jury duty form. If they still try to say some sort of excuse like they will have a warrant and be at my address then I will say that I’ll takr my chances with that and hang up
 
You can ask what agency holds the warrant (county sheriff or whomever) and then look up their number in your blue (government) pages to call and verify by just giving your name and address. Same holds for anyone who gets a call from any supposed governmental agency about any problem.
 
Also, if you have caller ID and the number is suspicious (like out of area or cell phone or something else indicating a non-official number), you know right then and there that they are lying and that you should stand your ground and insist for a contact number and person.

Also, check with the phone company for trace options.

Either way, forward any numbers you find on caller ID to the police.
 
chicago said:
Wouldn’t it be the State Attorney General who you’d need to contact, actually?
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Maybe, but if you call the police they can perhaps tell you the approipriate authority. It might be the attorney general, it could be the state’s attorney, depending on which court system they are misrepresenting. Besides, with cases we hear of people impersonating police in order to rob or rape people, having as much documentation should help, not hurt, in case you need to contact the police to aid you if an impersonator tries to pull something funny. Call me paranoid, but I’m sure that you saw the news in the past few days regarding the people posing as gas company employees (and maybe also as a city inspector) who are robbing/burglarizing people up over by here in area 5 on the NW side.

Times like these that it is always good to screen calls with an answering machine/voicemail or caller ID.
 
Norseman82 said:
Maybe, but if you call the police they can perhaps tell you the approipriate authority.
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If you called the police with a report like that in Chicago, they’d likely laugh you off the phone.
Call me paranoid, but I’m sure that you saw the news in the past few days regarding the people posing as gas company employees (and maybe also as a city inspector) who are robbing/burglarizing people up over by here in area 5 on the NW side.
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Nothing new. But, then, if you have someone knocking at your door, it’s a little different in regards to response required than a mere scam phone call.
Times like these that it is always good to screen calls with an answering machine/voicemail or caller ID.
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My machine even exclaims, “Are you a telemarketer? I don’t like talking to telemarketers!”
 
Good reason for an unlisted number, caller ID, and block service.
 
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