An internet warning that's for real? Who'd've thunk it?

[eirias]

Apparently there is an identity theft scam involving jury duty. The deal: Dude calls you up and says either that you're up for jury duty or that you're going to be prosecuted for failure to report for jury duty. Then when you protest that you haven't received any notice in the mail, they ask for your SSN and birthdate so they can "verify" your jury duty assignment. You can read about it at fbi.gov or uscourts.gov.

It is not a new scam, but has been pretty active in the last few years, and since I hadn't heard of it before today I thought it might be worth a PSA.

Also: I am super proud because before forwarding this warning to me, my mother checked out the scoop from the good people at Snopes. :)

Comments

[leora.livejournal.com]

Indeed, good advice. On a side note-addendum sort of thing - never, ever give any personal or important information to anyone who calls you. Always say that you will call them back with the information and then verify the number is calling who you expect it to be. There are a lot of variations on this sort of scam, and that general guideline is fairly good protection against all of them. Any legitimate agency should be okay with you calling them back.

Similarly, if someone comes to your door unnanounced, they should be okay with you calling the gas company, electric company, whatever to verify that they sent a service person to your home.