The jury duty scam involves someone claiming to be a court official and telling the victim they have failed in jury duty and there is a warrant out for their arrest. The scammer then asks for personal information. This scam can be avoided by not releasing personal information over the phone and verifying the information by calling back the courthouse. Court officials do not ask for personal information over the phone.
A jury duty scam is an identity theft technique in which someone attempts to get a target to reveal personal information by claiming that the victim is in trouble for failing a jury duty. This scam is easy to avoid by refusing to release personal information over the phone, even when the caller claims to be a court official. The frequency of this scam is unknown, but several law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States, are aware of the problem.
The jury duty scam begins with a phone call from someone claiming to be a court employee, telling the victim that he has failed in jury duty and that there is a warrant out for his arrest. Some judges may choose to exercise their power to issue a subpoena in cases where people are not oath-bound, but this is unusual. Even if a judge issued a warrant to compel someone to appear as a juror, the subject of the warrant would not get a call about it. Court officials usually only call people when a trial is underway and need to contact jurors to provide them with information.
The victim usually responds with panic; many people express confusion and dismay because they have not received a summons, or have simply performed their jury duty and do not understand how they could have been called again. The scammer claims that it might be possible to clear up the matter, if the victim only provides some “verifying information” such as name, date of birth, social security number, and so on. With information from a jury duty scam, a person can potentially commit identity theft and pose as a victim to open credit accounts and engage in other activities.
Court officials do not ask people for personal information of this nature, especially not over the phone. Jury duty scam relies on the victim’s ignorance and plays on emotion to build pressure and make people feel like they have to respond immediately.
If people receive a call from someone claiming to be a court official, they should request the person’s name and extension from the court and explain that they want to verify the information by calling back. People should look up the courthouse phone number in the telephone directory rather than relying on a caller-given number to ensure they are actually calling the courthouse. Once the call is successful, they can request to be transferred to the caller’s extension. If the original call was not legitimate, it is advisable to ask to speak to a bailiff and file a complaint informing the court of the jury duty scam.
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