TIP OF THE DAY

Jury Scam

From <http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp>Snopes.com

Scam: Identity thieves trick the unwary into

revealing their personal details by telling them

they've failed to report for jury duty and

warrants for their arrest are being issued.

Status: Real fraud, potential for financial harm unknown.

Example: [Collected on the Internet, 2005]

Here's a new twist scammers are using to commit

identity theft: the jury duty scam. Here's how it works:

The scammer calls claiming to work for the local

court and claims you've failed to report for jury

duty. He tells you that a warrant has been issued for your arrest.

The victim will often rightly claim they never

received the jury duty notification. The scammer

then asks the victim for confidential information for "verification" purposes.

Specifically, the scammer asks for the victim's

Social Security number, birth date, and sometimes

even for credit card numbers and other private

information ? exactly what the scammer needs to commit identity theft.

So far, this jury duty scam has been reported in

Michigan, Ohio, Texas, Arizona, Illinois,

Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington state.

It's easy to see why this works. The victim is

clearly caught off guard, and is understandably

upset at the prospect of a warrant being issued

for his or her arrest. So, the victim is much

less likely to be vigilant about protecting their confidential information.

In reality, court workers will never call you to

ask for social security numbers and other private

information. In fact, most courts follow up via

snail mail and rarely, if ever, call prospective jurors.

Action: Never give out your Social Security

number, credit card numbers or other personal

confidential information when you receive a telephone call.

This jury duty scam is the latest in a series of

identity theft scams where scammers use the phone

to try to get people to reveal their Social

Security number, credit card numbers or other

personal confidential information.

It doesn't matter *why* they are calling ? all

the reasons are just different variants of the same scam.

Protecting yourself is simple: Never give this

info out when you receive a phone call.

Origins: This helpful heads-up began appearing

in inboxes in August 2005. While this particular

attempt to coerce information from potential

identity theft victims is not new, it is real. In

a number of U.S. states, con artists have been

contacting people by phone to assert those

they've targeted have evaded jury duty and

announce warrants are being issued for their

arrest. When the about-to-be-duped protest they

never received such notifications, that surely a

mistake has been made, the sharpies go after what

they really want, which is their pigeons'

personal and financial information. Under threat

of being hauled off in paddy wagons unless they

succeed in straightening out this terrible mess,

many folks who would otherwise be more wary about

what they reveal of their personal data will find

themselves reeling off their birth dates and

social security and credit card numbers in an

effort to convince their callers the

notifications that never arrived actually went to

other addresses or were never meant for them in the first place.

However, these calls conclude whether those who

have been approached are left with the impression

they've failed to show up for jury duty and are

still expected to discharge their civic duties,

or that a big misunderstanding has now been

resolved their true purpose has been

accomplished: the scam artists now have the

information necessary to open accounts or charge

goods in the names of their victims.

The scheme outlined in the message quoted above

might be categorized as a "social engineering"

scam a technique which preys upon people's

unquestioning acceptance of authority and

willingness to cooperate in order to extract from them sensitive information.

On 22 August 2005, the Minnesota Judicial Branch

issued a

<http://www.courts.state.mn.us/news/posting.aspx?ID=20317&pageID=130>warning

about the bogus calls. The Minnesota Judicial

Branch points out its courts always use the mail

to send jury service summons, communicating by

telephone only after prospective jurors have

returned completed summons information forms.

In New Mexico, Rep. Tom Udall has been

<http://www.tomudall.house.gov/issues2.cfm?id=11006>warning

citizens about the scam. As he points out,

Federal courts do not require anyone to provide

any sensitive information over the telephone.

Most contact between a federal court and a

private citizen is conducted by mail.

The Superior Court of California has posted an

<http://www.courts.co.riverside.ca.us/newsmedia/05juryscam.pdf>alert

on its web site, warning that identity thieves

posing as court officials have been trying to get

confidential information through phone calls

about jury duty. Once again, callers have been

telling potential victims they failed to report

for jury duty, then demanding their Social

Security numbers. While court personnel may

occasionally call people at home, "We never ask

for Social Security numbers or personal

identifying information," said Marita Ford, chief

deputy executive officer for Riverside Superior Court.

Though the 'jury duty' information-gleaning scam

has been garnering attention in 2005, it is not

new. In 2004, residents of Franklin County, Ohio,

were hit by this scam. At least five people

called the Franklin County Municipal Court in

September 2004 to ask where they were to report

for duty after someone telephoned to obtain

personal information. In Ohio, as in Minnesota,

jury summonses are sent by mail and court workers

do not call potential jurors to ask for Social

Security numbers or dates of birth.

In February 2004, the scam was active in Charles

County, Maryland. Once again, the fraud came to

the attention of authorities via residents who

had been contacted by phone afterwards asking the

County Clerk about the attempts to wheedle

personal information from them. They too had been

asked for birth dates and Social Security

numbers, that time by callers who claimed such

intelligences were needed to assemble a pool of

jurors for selection in upcoming trials. The

Charles County Circuit Court does not telephone

residents who are selected for jury duty.

Potential jurors are sent notices in the mail.

In 2001 the Erie County Commissioner of Jurors

reported someone in that area had been staging

telephone scams about jury duty in Chautauqua,

Seneca, and Jefferson counties, seeking

information about home addresses and bank

accounts allegedly "for reimbursement purposes."

Targets of that fraud were being told by the

swindlers attempting to deceive them that this

information was required for the purpose of

directly depositing their $40-a-day jury duty

stipends. Erie County officials point out their

jurors' checks come directly from Albany and not

from local jurors offices, nor are these payments

deposited directly into jurors' bank accounts.

Though the 'jury duty' information phishing

scheme is not new, it has been heavily put to use

around the U.S. in August 2005. Be wary of any

calls of this nature and refuse to give out your personal information.

How to Avoid Falling Victim to 'Jury Duty' Scams:

* Court workers will not telephone to say

you've missed jury duty or that they are

assembling juries and need to pre-screen those

who might be selected to serve on them, so

dismiss as fraudulent phones call of this nature.

About the only time you would hear by telephone

(rather than by mail) about anything having to do

with jury service would be after you have mailed

back your completed questionnaire, and even then only rarely.

* Do not give out bank account, social

security, or credit card numbers over the phone

if you didn't initiate the call, whether it be to

someone trying to sell you something or to

someone who claims to be from a bank or

government department. If such callers insist

upon "verifying" such information with you, have

them read the data to you from their notes, with

you saying yea or nay to it rather than the other way around.

* Examine your credit card and bank account

statements every month, keeping an eye peeled for

unauthorized charges. Immediately challenge items you did not approve.

Last updated: 26 August 2005

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