NEWS: FBI Warns Citizens To Beware Of 'Jury Duty' Phone Scams

Wednesday the FBI issued a warning to the public of a new identity theft scam in which scammers will make phone calls posing as an officer or court employee to obtain personal information. This new scam is traveling fast so be aware.



What many people do not know is that in the US courts will never notify you of jury duty by phone; it is always done by mail. Also the Police/sheriff are not dumb they are never going to call you and tell you that they have a warrant out for your arrest, they just come out and get you.

There is a good solid rule of thumb to use in the world today with all these scams going on, never ever give out any personal information on the phone to anyone you do not know.

Here is a little trick I use when I receive a call from an unknown person. First I tell the caller I never give out any personal information on the telephone and hang up, but it does not end there. What I immediately do is hit star 69 which dials back the last number that just called and ask for John (insert any last name). Once they tell me I have the wrong number, I ask them what number is this. Even if they do not give me the number it is still recorded by the phone company and will appear on my next bill as a star 69 call. This gives me a record of where the call came from and I can turn that number over to the authorities for investigation of possible phone fraud. There is a small fee for using star 69 but a cheap way to catch a thief.


Related News Links:
www.stltoday.com

You could also dial "*57" then file a complaint with the police and phone company. This will generate a phone company trace.
.

What moron would give someone their credit card number for jury duty???

The same morons that give their social security number to nameless faces on the phone to verify identity for common NON SOCIAL SECURITY ISSUES. ...

those nameless faces could be gathering a huge list to sell...

Not many people understand, that credit card companies/phone companies/ electricity companies HAVE NO RIGHT TO USE SS# for verification...
they dont' work for the SS admin, and they dont have to honor the good faith promise not to sell that info...

but it does set a mighty nice precedent for RFID reqs to preserve identity.

asking for Credit card numbers is an obvious scam, but if it didn't work, they wouldn't be doing it...

Lets hope that grandma doesn't get jacked...

My girlfriend was almost "hit" by this... meaning...

She was getting calls on her cell phone by someone claiming to be a court employee... her phone is off during business hours and thats when they were calling, they would actually leave a message and a phone number to call back.

After the 3rd time getting the message, I called back from my office phone and got a live person, they wouldn't tell me what organization they were with, I told them there better not be anymore calls to my gals cell #.

I gave her the cell phone number and after hearing a few computer clicks , the calls have stopped....