New Jury Duty Scam to Try to Steal Your Identity

Identity theft is on the rise. And the thieves out there has come up with a new way to try to trap you. In this con, the con artist is using a basic fear, annoyance or one's civic duty, depending on what one thinks of, jury duty. What happens is that the con artist will place a phone to his/her victim. They will identify themselves as a jury coordinator. Then they will go to inform the victim that he/she fail to show up for his/her appointed jury duty notice and that a warrant has been issued for his/her arrest. The victim will, of course, protest and say they never received said notice. The con artist will then ask the victim for his/her social security number and birth date, so that he/she can check the records and verify that they are speaking to the rightful person. If a mistake has been made he/she can cancel the warrant, ASAP. Of course, at this point one may not be thinking clearly. His/her heart beat is racing and he/she is in fear. This is what the con artist is hoping. Then if you let the fear win over your rational thinking, you will give him/her the information he/she wants and he/she is able to steal your identity. Some of these con artists will even go a step further and ask for a credit card number from the victim.

This crime has all ready been reported in eleven states. Some of the states includes: Oklahoma, Illinois and Colorado.

How do you know this is a scam? First of all, a real jury coordinators will never ask for such information over the phone. In fact, all communication is done through the mail when it involves jury duty, including when someone fails to show up for jury duty. Most states do not even have the phone numbers of potential jurors, until the juror is picked to sit on a jury.

What should you do if you get a phone call like this? Tell the person who is calling that you will personally get in touch of the court yourself. Contact the court and tell them about the phone call. They in turn, will probably tell you to contact the police.