Jury Duty Scam

The BBB would like to alert consumers of a resurgence of an old scam that has been reported as targeting consumers yet again - the Jury Duty scam.

In the Jury Duty scam, the consumer receives a phone call from a caller who identifies him or herself as an official of the court system. The nature of the call will be to notify the consumer of a pending arrest warrant issued against him or her as a result of the consumer failing to report for jury duty. Due to the serious nature of the call, the scam artist will know that that the victim will be thrown off guard and will start panicking.

As soon as the consumer starts denying that no jury duty summons has been received -because none in fact has been sent- the scammer will request personal information for "verification purposes" to allegedly clear the consumer's name and cancel the arrest warrant. The requested information might include the consumer's birth date, social security number, and maybe even a credit card number.

Consumers beware- the intent of this scam is identity theft. Per the FBI, court officers never ask for confidential information over the phone; they generally correspond with prospective jurors via mail. By providing sensitive information over the phone, the victim may give his or her bank account access directly to a thief and consequently have fraudulent transactions made in their name.

In order to protect yourself from becoming a victim of identity theft, never give out personal information when you receive an unsolicited phone call. If you believe you were a victim of this scam, contact your local BBB.