NESP Forum

Jury Duty Scam DO NOT DELETE WITHOUT READING !

This has been verified by the FBI (their link is also included below). Please pass this on to everyone in your email address book. It is spreading fast so be prepared should you get this call. Most of us take those summonses for jury duty seriously, but enough people skip out on their civic duty, that a new and ominous kind of fraud has surface d.

The caller claims to be a jury coordinator. If you protest that you never received a summons for jury duty, the scammer asks you for your Social Security number and date of birth so he or she can verify the information and cancel the arrest warrant. Give out any of this information and bingo; your identity was just stolen.

The fraud has been reported so far in 11 states, including Oklahoma , Illinois , and Colorado . This (swindle) is particularly insidious because they use intimidation over the phone to try to bully peop le into giving information by pretending they are with the court system. The FBI and the federal court system have issued nationwide alerts on their web sites, warning consumers about the fraud.

Check it out here: http://www.fbi.gov/page2/june06/jury_scams060206.htm

And here: http://www.snopes.com/crime/fraud/juryduty.asp

Good to know Liz!

I sat on a jury for an armed robbery and murder trial (an MIT student was stabbed) many years ago and it was a very emotional thing to do. We were even sequestered (sp?) overnight at a hotel. The judicial system is amazing to see that close but if it's for a violent crime, it's very sad and unsettling.

I had jury duty last spring! When I got the notice, I was so afraid it would interrupt my plans to see Taylor but it fit right in between the April shows & the June shows. I found it very interesting. I sat on a sexual assault case and a couple of OUI cases.

I was called for federal jury duty a couple years ago but wasn't empaneled, the guy pled out at the last second. Drugs, I think. Now I work for a lawyer so it's pretty impossible for me to make it past voir dire, since I know most of the prosecutors!

You're lucky...when I went, I did end up knowing some of the "accused".

Amy so If I got called it would be someone I slept with!!!!!! JUST KIDDING EVERYONE.

If someone called me with one of these scams, they would get an earful of questions...

Goodness, I don't remember getting a notice in the mail, which court is this again? Where is it located? Who's the clerk of court again? I'm sure I can just stop by in the morning and straighten it all out. Isn't the warrant supposed to be delivered by the nice men in the brown uniforms and the cruiser? I'll wait for them to bring it in person, they know where I work... thank you very much.

Love you Lisa!!!

OK, the weirdest jury duty story of all.
A friend of my sister said she was chosen for jury duty and the room was full of people, she saw my brother there. She said he asked to speak to the bailiff (is it a bailiff in charge there? I have been on jury duty but forgot the terms). Next thing you know he was whisked out of the room. I asked him about it ... he said when he learned what the trial was about he knew he immediately had to ask to be dismissed (our dad was a lawyer + my brother is an appraiser and testifies a lot in court so knows his stuff ) ....... anyway it was the murder trial for our first cousin's murder. If he had said anything in that room about his relationship to the decesased, it's likely all those in the room would have had to be dismissed.

P.S. Our cousin was a sweet and lovely lady, a hard worker. Worked night shift at a motel and was brutally murdered by a former co-worker who was on drugs and came in... apparently to get money from the till and she, unfortunately, fought to keep him from stealing the money. She was beaten to death and her body set on fire. Oddly enough, that crime reinactment show on TV picked up on it and had a show about it on TV last yr.

One more jury duty thing. Poor Tom got called for Superior Court a few yrs. back. In VT you have to serve SIX months and serve on any case you get called for (or you did then, maybe that has changed now). Well, maybe because he is clean cut and honest looking.. not sure. He got called over and over. And his boss would not pay him for the time (local companies like GE do pay you your wages if you are on jury duty). He pleaded with the judge to no avail. We really were out a LOT of money that yr. It sucked to do your civic duty and suffer such a personal hardship for your efforts. He had lots of nervous and stomach problems from all the stress and ended up taking expensive meds for acid refux, which he never had before. I got called to District court the next yr. but never got called to sit for a trial.