Friday, February 01, 2008

Scam Alert

Jury Duty (Serious)(Very Important)

 From Port Hope Police Dept Ontario, Canada.

It is spreading fast so be

prepared should you get this call.

Most of us take the summons for jury duty

seriously, but enough people

                                                                                                                               skip out on their civic duty, that a new and

ominous kind                                                                                                                       of scam has surfaced.

 Fall for it and your identity could be stolen,

reports CBS.

 In this con, someone calls pretending to be a court

 Official who threateningly says a warrant has been issued for

your arrest because you didn't show up for jury duty. The caller claims to be a jury coordinator.

 If you protest that you never received a summons

for jury duty, the

scammer asks you for your Social Security number

and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the

arrest warrant. Sometimes they even ask for credit card numbers.

Give out any of this information and .... Bingo! Your identity has just been stolen.

 

The scam has been reported so far in 11 states. I

could not find any record of it having been done in Canada as yet.

This scam is particularly

insidious because they use intimidation over the

phone to try to bully people into giving information by pretending

they're with the court system.

The FBI and the federal court system have issued

nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.

 Garry Hull

Deputy Chief

Port Hope Police Services

ghull@phps.on.ca

905-885-8123

 Thanks Margaret W.

 

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