Saturday, October 27, 2007

Don't get scammed

I copied this from Stacy's blog and I think it's good information to pass on. Steve was just summoned for jury duty, but it wasn't a scam. Don't let this happen to you!

JURY DUTY SCAM

This has been verified by the FBI (their link is also included below). 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 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 (this is and attempt to bully you). Give out any of this information and bingo; your identity just got stolen. The scam has been reported so far in 11 states, including communities in Florida, New York, Minnesota, Illinois, Colorado, Oregon, California, Virginia, Oklahoma, Arizona, and New Hampshire reported scams or posted warnings or press releases on their local websites.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 nation wide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud. Check it out here:

http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp

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