Jury Duty Telephone Scam

Here’s another clever scheme that scam artists are using to obtain personal information from people and then use that information for identity theft crimes.

The scam artists call potential victims and try to scare them info providing their personal information by telling them that they had been called for jury duty and did not show up. As a result, an arrest warrant has been issued on a “contempt of court” charge.

When the potential victim tells the caller that they never received a notice to report for jury duty, the caller offers to clear the whole issue up for them but it will require a social security number and bank account information in order to confirm their identity.

Always remember, if you receive a phone call for any reason and someone claims that you need to provide personal information like social security numbers or bank account information, someone is trying to scam you.

If you suspect it might be a legitimate call, find out what agency or company the caller is associated with and tell them you will call them back. You can then research it to find out if it is an actual agency or company and contact them to find out if they actually called you.

 Repair Scams Target The Elderly

I don’t know how many times I have heard about scams like this. It’s a time-tested method of scamming the elderly that has probably been going on for a very long time. I am seeing a few recent reports of these scams in the news lately, so I thought I would mention it here.

These scams involve approaching an elderly person and informing them that there is a serious problem with their car or their home and then offering to repair the problem for a ridiculously inflated price.

One recent case in the Las Vegas area involved a man who showed up at an elderly man’s house and told him that there was water leaking under his house and that his house would sink if it was not repaired. He then offered to repair it for a ridiculous amount of money.

In California, scam artists followed an elderly woman as she drove her car and when she stopped, they informed her that a wheel was about to fall off her car and offered to repair it. They even drove her to the bank so she could withdraw thousands of dollars for the phony repair work!

Never give money to people who approach you with stories like this. If you want to be polite, thank them for the information and send them away, then, if you suspect there might really be a problem, call a reputable company to find out if you really are in need of repair services of any kind.

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