I checked it out on Snopes folks and this is the real
deal. Beware.
http://www.snopescom/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp
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Jury Duty Scam Leads to Identity Theft
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Here's a new twist scammers are using to commit identity theft:
the jury duty scam. Here's how it works:
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.
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.
Specifically, the scammer asks for the victim's Social
Security number, birth date, and sometimes even for credit card
n! umbers and other private information -- exactly what the
scammer needs to commit identity theft.
So far, this jury duty scam has been reported in Michigan,
Ohio, Texas, Arizona, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Minnesota,
Oregon and Washington state.
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.
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.
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