Jury Scam Alert

This comes to us from the Harris County District Clerk's Office.  Seems the old Jury Scam is making its way around the area again.

Beware identity thief using threats about jury service

Once again, an identity thief is trying to use threats about jury service to obtain personal information from a Harris County resident.

The new case came to the office’s attention Wednesday. It apparently is the first here since the summer of 2005, when the District Clerk’s Office heard from four persons who were wary enough to double check before giving out personal information.

This time, the target asked the thief too many questions. After the thief hung up, the target checked the District Clerk’s Web site, www.hcdistrictclerk.com, and found a warning about just such a scam.

District Clerk Theresa Chang said, “Please remember, do not give out personal  information over the phone to anyone who calls you claiming to be with the judicial system or our office.”

Here is the warning from the Web site:

Identity thieves have called Harris County residents and threatened them for failing to report for jury service. The thieves then asked for confidential information. The local courts and Jury Assembly Room staff will NEVER call you and ask for Social Security Numbers, credit card numbers or other sensitive information. Do not give out such information over the phone to anyone who calls you claiming to be with the judicial system.

In an e-mail, the potential victim wrote:

“I received a phone call yesterday from someone claiming to be with the Harris County Jury Assembly Room Staff. They said that I had failed to report to Jury Duty and I would be fined $300 dollars if I did not. Then they told me that I could pay with a credit card and get it taken care of right away. I do not have a credit card, so I told them I had never received a letter/summons and if I was going to be fined, I would rather send in a money order or check. Then I started asking more questions about what I could do to avoid the fine, since I had never received the letter, and they just hung up on me.

“I thought that we had just been disconnected, so I came to your website to try to get more information. Then I saw on the first page the paragraph about thieves calling and trying to steal credit and (Social Security) numbers. Luckily, this did not happen to me because I did not give them my information.”

Chang said, “This was a close call. If the target had had a credit card, this would be a sad story. As it is, the thief’s target is helping us warn others.”