Courts warn about jury duty phone scam

[flashl]

Source: Birmingham News

Calls about missed jury duty are fake

Court officials have renewed a warning about an identity-theft scam by people posing as court workers, saying the would-be victim faces arrest for missing jury duty and seeking information such as Social Security numbers.

The so-called "jury duty scam," has been reported in at least a dozen states, according to the FBI's Web site.

...

When the would-be victim protests about not missing jury duty, the caller asks for personal information to verify the "mistake."

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Real court personnel do not call people for missing jury duty; they send letters. And they never ask for personal data like birthdates, Social Security numbers, credit card numbers or bank account information.

Never give out personal information over the telephone when you receive an unsolicited call

Birmingham News

Read more: http://www.al.com/news/birminghamnews/index.ssf?/base/news/1205136936283750.xml&coll=2&thispage=1

[bluestateguy]

1. I was called for jury duty a few months ago in a state I no longer live in

I have not lived nor voted there since 1998, and have not had a driver's license there since 1999. They don't do a very good job keeping their lists up to date. I ignored the "summons".

[flashl]

2. Your experience reveals jurors and voter database are not linked as some claims. nt

[renate]

3. K&R because this is good to know

It might be a good idea for people to forward this to others... most of us here know not to give out personal information, etc, to people who ask for it, because we wouldn't last long on the Internets without being careful, but people who only recently registered to vote (especially younger adults or immigrants who've just become American citizens) might not know that something like this is a scam.

Thanks!