Written by Patrick Russell
Posted in Legal News - Articles

Beware of the Jury Duty Telephone Call stating that you failed to report to Jury Duty

A particular troublesome scam is one in which a person calls your home identifying themselves as an officer of the Court.  The scammer states that you have missed jury duty and that an arrest warrant has been issued against you for failing to appear.  Naturally you become alarmed and state that you never received any jury duty notice from the Court.  The scammer will next request that you provide your current address, date of birth and social security number so that your information can supposedly be verified and to cancel the arrest warrant.  If you should provide this information, your identity has just been stolen and you should expect numerous credit cards to be opened in your name. 

This scam has been perpetrated successfully across the country and the FBI has an advisory on its website relating to the ploy.  The best way to avoid any such scams is to refuse to provide any of your private details to anyone over the telephone that you do not know.  Simply request the person or company to provide you with a written request for the information before you give any such data to anyone.  That gives you time to do the research to find out if the request is in fact legitimate.  You will also find that most reputable companies, including your own bank, rarely ask for all of your data, often all they need is the last four digits of your Social Security Number.  Protect your data at all costs or you could be in for the headache of your life!