Jury Duty Scam

I am trying to address some of the "popular" scams in this blog, and this one has apparently been fairly active and has had some success during the past few years. It is commonly called the jury duty scam, as mentioned in the title. The fraudster's method is relatively simple. He/she will call you to let you know that since you failed to report for jury duty, there is a warrant for your arrest and there is an officer on his way to your house to arrest you. You, never recalling receiving a summons, tell the caller just that. Well, in that case, the caller is all too willing to help you clear this up, and asks for your Social Security number and other identifying information.

It's no secret as to the reason why this works. No one wants to be arrested for a ignoring a summons that was never received, and when caught off guard like that, you don't usually take the time to think this through. First of all, if you don't report to jury duty after a summons, you will be contacted by mail, not telephone, and you would not be asked to reveal information like your Social Security number to the courts over the phone. They already have this information, and besides, if there were really a warrant for your arrest, simply supplying your SSN is not going to clear it up.

Obviously, you should be suspicious if you receive such a call. Do not supply information to "verify" anything unless you initiated the call. In fact, hang up. It may seem rude, but this person wants to keep you on the line to hurt you, not help you.