Jury Duty Scam -- Identity Theft

Most of us take those 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 just got stolen.

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