Jun 16, 2009 11:44 pm US/Eastern
Consumer Warning: 'Jury Duty' Scam Is Everywhere
Caller Claiming To Be Affiliated With Courts Contacts You And Tries To Guilt You Into Handing Over Personal Information
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
It's the obligation of every citizen -- jury duty.
And as CBS 2 HD found out a new scam is capitalizing on our civic duty.
It's the latest scam sweeping the nation -- the FBI says the jury duty scam is now here.
"Playing on people's good intention on complying with grand jury," said FBI Supervisory Special Agent Austin Berglas.
Here's how it works: You get a phone call or an e-mail from a person claiming to be a government official, a police officer, an FBI agent, an officer of the court. They say there is a warrant out for your arrest because you failed to show up for jury duty. For "verification" purposes they start to ask about your personal information.
"Social security numbers, address … you name it, that's the prize," Berglas said.
At this point you never remember receiving a notice but now, it's too late said Berglas.
"The end result is they want to take money out of your personal account," Berglas said.
The scam is so widespread many people are posting warnings about it on YouTube.
"They know people want to do the right thing so when they see an e-mail reportedly from the FBI they believe that people will click on that link and then they can install malware on the computer," Berglas said.
That's a computer virus that will give the bad guys access to all your personal information, including your checking and savings accounts if you bank online.
So who is behind it?
"It's really all international -- Africa, Eastern Europe, even China to some extent," Berglas said.
That's why authorities say many of the e-mails and calls contain grammatical errors.
"Because it originates from non-English speaking countries," Berglas said.
Remember, federal agencies like the FBI will not call asking for your personal information. To protect yourself, if you get a call or e-mail, hang up and call them directly.
If you think you've been a victim of the "jury duty scam" or one similar, please click
here.
(© MMX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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