Burnsville, Minnesota – January 6, 2015 – Better Business Bureau of Minnesota and North Dakota
® (BBB) is warning the public about a jury duty
scam which, regrettably, never goes out of style. Though most adults are aware
they may be called for jury duty, not everyone is familiar with the bureaucracy
surrounding this process; the exact manner in which people are summoned for
jury duty. People also know that jury duty is both a civic duty and mandatory.
Scammers, meanwhile, look to profit off situations where uncertainty exists.
“The jury duty scam is
just clever enough to pay dividends for fraudsters,” said Dana Badgerow,
president and CEO of BBB of Minnesota and North Dakota. “Our hope is that by
spreading the word about this scheme it will reduce the pool of people who
might get hooked by it.”
How the jury duty scam
works:
Scammers contact you,
claiming you’ve missed jury duty. The calls or messages threaten people with
arrest or jail time if they don’t pay the fine for “missing” jury duty.
Scammers will then seek personal information such as bank account or credit
card numbers – even Social Security numbers. BBB advises the public that
if you get a call from someone who claims to be a court official and asks for
sensitive personal information or demands a payment, it’s a scam.
In Minnesota, jury duty notices/summonses are sent
through the mail. Though Minnesota law requires people to serve on jury duty,
if qualified, nobody will call you – or email or text – demanding payment for
missing jury duty.
BBB Tips to avoid the jury duty scam:
Don’t let scammers pressure you. If you get a call from
alleged court officials asking for financial information, end the phone call
and report the scam to BBB and your county’s jury office.
Be aware that scammers can mask their identity. Scammers
have the ability to use software to disguise how they appear on your caller ID.
So while calls might appear to be from your local courthouse, it could be a
fraudster on the other end of the line.
Guard your personal information. Giving out sensitive
personal or financial information over the phone is always a bad idea - don’t do it.
Have questions about the process? If you did indeed miss
jury duty, you will be sent a notification in the mail. However, if you have
any doubt that a mailing is legitimate, contact your county courthouse.
For the latest consumer news, fraud alerts and free BBB
Business Reviews, visit bbb.org.
