Friday, January 29, 2010

Jury Duty Phone Scam

One of my clients alerted me to this Jury Dury Scam.  Here's how it works.  Folks get a call from a person who claims to be an officer of the court and informs you failed to show up for jury duty.  After telling him you never received a notice, he says he will need some personal information for verification (birthday, social security number, etc.).  He now can steal your identity.

We all tend to be trusting, especially with folks claiming to be from law enforcement agencies.  But if Hollywood has shown us nothing else, it's shown us that we can't trust everybody who claims to be from law enforcement really is.

ANYTIME somebody asks you for personal information on the phone, DO NOT GIVE IT TO THEM.  Hang up the phone and call the agency in question yourself and ask if they were trying to contact you.  If you're able to extract information from the caller (like their name, phone number, where they're located, etc.) it may be useful in the caller turns out to be a scammer.

For more information about this scam, visit the FBI's web page using the link below:
http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm

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