Thread: New scam to steal id's.. please pass along to everyone

This has been verified by the FBI (their link is also included below).

This may have been posted previously, but still worthwhile to get out to everyone we know.


Please pass this on to everyone in your email address book.

It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call.

Most of us take those summons for jury duty seriously ..

a new and ominous kind of fraud 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 was just stolen.

The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states,

including Oklahoma, Illinois, and Colorado .

This (swindle) is particularly insidious
because they use intimidation over the phone

to try to bully people into giving information

by pretending they are with the court system.

The FBI and the Federal Court System

have issued nationwide alerts on their
web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.

Snopes site: says this is real fraud.
http://www.snopescom/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp


FBI site: warns about the fraud.
http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm <http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm>

Thanks Dianne. I was not aware of that one before. (my state is one of the 11 mentioned too )

I have heard of that one a while back but would like to add that we need to also be vigilant when anyone tries to bully you for info. I was with a relative where an insurance office employee wanted a old driver's license and was pushing for them to apply for a credit card which of course asks for your SSN.

They get more and more creative every day. I would probably fall for this scam if I had not been warned.

As long as we are on scams---I discovered about two weeks ago that about twenty dollars a month, w/o my knowledge, has been getting deducted from my debit card. I was too busy with out of town work and don't usually go over my monthly statements, anyway. When I saw an entry I didn't recognize I started searching.

Seems that some transactions you engage in may sign you up for services without your knowledge. Some businesses even sell your debit/credit card number and you start getting billed--by another company of course. Then it's up to you to cancel your new "membership." This particular one appears to have even come through a nationwide internet service provider who was selling people's banking ID to a marketing company "offering" several programs for "discounts" on various things. Sort of a travel and leisure club.

Needless to say there are several state attorney general investigations and I also found a class-action lawsuit underway. Called the company right away, since their phone number was on the statement, and they started backing down--to a point. Say they cannot go back two years.

This is a true scam that's going on. I heard about this a few weeks ago on the local news where I live. They said some local people had been scammed.

Thanks Dianne. I will pass this along.