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<DIV style="MARGIN: 10px 15px; TEXT-ALIGN: justify">Here's a new twist scammers
are using to commit identity theft: the jury duty scam. Here's how it works:
<BR><BR>The scammer calls claiming to work for the local court and claims you've
failed to report for jury duty. He tells you that a warrant has been issued for
your arrest. <BR><BR>The victim will often rightly claim they never received the
jury duty notification. The scammer then asks the victim for confidential
information for "verification" purposes. <BR><BR>Specifically, the scammer asks
for the victim's Social Security number, birth date, and sometimes even for
credit card numbers and other private information — exactly what the scammer
needs to commit identity theft. <BR><BR>So far, this jury duty scam has been
reported in Michigan, Ohio, Texas, Arizona, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Minnesota,
Oregon and Washington state. <BR><BR>It's easy to see why this works. The victim
is clearly caught off guard, and is understandably upset at the prospect of a
warrant being issued for his or her arrest. So, the victim is much less likely
to be vigilant about protecting their confidential information. <BR><BR>In
reality, court workers will never call you to ask for social security numbers
and other private information. In fact, most courts follow up via snail mail and
rarely, if ever, call prospective jurors. <BR><BR>Action: Never give out your
Social Security number, credit card numbers or other personal confidential
information when you receive a telephone call. <BR><BR>This jury duty scam is
the latest in a series of identity theft scams where scammers use the phone to
try to get people to reveal their Social Security number, credit card numbers or
other personal confidential information. <BR><BR>It doesn't matter *why* they
are calling — all the reasons are just different variants of the same scam.
<BR><BR>Protecting yourself is simple: Never give this info out when you receive
a phone call. </DIV> </FONT><STRONG> </STRONG><BR><B><?fontfamily><?param Arial><?x-tad-smaller>Check
it out here: <?/x-tad-smaller><?/fontfamily></B><?fontfamily><?param Arial><?color><?param 0000,0000,FFFF><?x-tad-smaller>
<?/x-tad-smaller><?/color><?/fontfamily><BR><B><?fontfamily><?param Arial><?color><?param 0000,3333,9999><?x-tad-smaller><A
href="http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp">http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp</A><?/x-tad-smaller><?/color><?smaller><?x-tad-smaller></B><FONT
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