A recurring identity theft technique is the jury duty scam. It takes various forms but it basically plays upon the anxiety of law abiding citizens that, somehow, they have broken the law. In one form of another, the ploy is to contact you and inform you that you have missed jury duty. Of course, there will be legal repercussions because you have failed to fulfill your civic duties. When you say that this is the first you have heard about this call for court duty, then the person who has contacted you asks for your personal information. This is to verify that you are indeed the person scheduled for jury duty. You are asked to supply personal information like date of birth and your social security number. With this information compromised, you will have set an identity theft process in motion.

If you have caller identification, the caller may be spoofing the number. The call may appear to be from the law courts or some similar agency. Rest assured that this is a scam. There will not be any warrants out for your arrest. It is just identity thieves manipulation your anxiety and your adherence to the law.

The FBI has numerous alerts about this scam:

link: TELEPHONE FRAUD INVOLVING JURY DUTY

link: Don’t Fall for Jury Duty Scam

These links may appear old but this ploy is being used still. Don’t give out your personal information - and don’t hesitate to contact the FBI. This identity theft scam falls under their mandate.

Catherine Forsythe
Director of Operations
FlyingHamster: http://flyinghamster.com/

Tags: identity theft, security, jury duty ploy, spoofing, fbi