Sweet Scam - A New Identity Theft Scheme

serleran · Post by **serleran** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:00 pm

JURY DUTY SCAM: 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 summons for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of scam 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 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. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.

Check it out here:
FBI

or here:
Snopes

Man, I can imagine it working... but, really, if one just thought a little, just a little, this wouldn't work - I mean, if they have to ask you for your SS#, they can't be from where they say they are... damn.

DangerDwarf · Post by **DangerDwarf** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 4:22 pm

Great....give me up on this one. I appreciate it Serl, now I need a new evil scheme.

Treebore · Post by **Treebore** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:44 pm

Thanks for making me aware of this Serl.
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Omote · Post by **Omote** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 5:49 pm

Good looking out man.

-O
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Tadhg · Post by **Tadhg** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:03 pm

Thanks for the tip.
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pactmaster · Post by **pactmaster** » Fri Nov 09, 2007 7:53 pm

See why being paranoid is so handy? I have caller id and still screen calls, usually conducting most business via email anyway.

It is a clever scam and one that (perhaps unconsciously) takes advantage of the new government/law enforcement attitude of "getting tough" on this or that. In Idaho law enforcement pushes mandatory seat belt wearing, I wear one every so often. At the core it isn't a probable cause to warrant a traffic stop here and there is no helmet law. If there was a helmet law I might comply more, but since there isn't there is no way a police officer can convince me that not wearing a seat belt is riskier than riding a motorcycle without a helmet. But the radio announcements and billboards mention law enforcement aggressively pursuing seat belt compliance, but really, they can't.

Today most people go with the flow, take the path of least resistance or just fold like a cheap suit. I can see where the bullying actually makes the scam sound legitimate.
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Technomancer · Post by **Technomancer** » Wed Nov 14, 2007 4:15 pm

Just screen all your calls with your answering machine and you won't have to worry about it. I doubt the scammers will leave a message.

I haven't actually answered my phone in years.