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Scam alert – source not confirmed

  The following scam alerts come to us from John W. Fulton, U.S.

  Department of the Interior Hydraulic Engineer  U.S. Geological Survey,

  WRD (Jury Duty   Scam) and the Pennsylvania State Police website (Spanish Lottery Scam):

  Here's a new twist scammers are using to commit identity theft:

  the jury duty scam. Here's how it works:

  The scammer calls claiming to work for the local court and claims you've

  failed to report for jury duty. He tells you that a warrant has been

  issued for your arrest.

  The victim will often rightly claim they never received the jury duty

  notification. The scammer then asks the victim for confidential

  information for "verification" purposes.

  Specifically, the scammer asks for the victim's Social Security number,

  birth date, and sometimes even for credit card numbers and other private

  information -- exactly what the scammer needs to commit identity theft.

  So far, this jury duty scam has been reported in Michigan, Ohio, Texas,

  Arizona, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Oregon and Washington state.

  It's easy to see why this works. The victim is clearly caught off guard,

  and is understandably upset at the prospect of a warrant being issued

  for his or her arrest. So, the victim is much less likely to be vigilant

  about protecting their confidential information.

  In reality, court workers will never call you to ask for social security

  numbers and other private information. In fact, most courts follow up

  via snail mail and rarely, if ever, call prospective jurors.

  Action: Never give out your Social Security number, credit card numbers

  or other personal confidential information when you receive a telephone

  call.

  This jury duty scam is the latest in a series of identity theft scams

  where scammers use the phone to try to get people to reveal their Social

  Security number, credit card numbers or other personal confidential

  information.

  It doesn't matter *why* they are calling -- all the reasons are just

  different variants of the same scam.

  Protecting yourself is simple: Never give this info out when you receive

  a phone call.

  For more on protecting yourself from identity theft, visit:

  http://www.scambusters.org/Scambusters47.html

  PA State Police Alert:

  Spanish Lottery Scam

  How the Spanish Lottery scam works:

  There is a general pattern among the scams.  First, the victim receives

  an "award confirmation" through fax or email informing them that they

  have won a large amount of money in a Spanish lottery drawing.  "Due to

  a clerical error" or some other sort of mix-up, the winner is asked to

  keep his or her prize confidential until the winnings are released to

  them.  Most times, there is a deadline to claim the money.  Once the

  "transfer process" begins, the victim is informed of various delays

  requiring the payment of transfer fees, taxes, anti-terror fees,

  insurance fees, claims agent fees, and other administrative costs that

  they must pay before the prize can officially be collected.  The scam

  runs under many different seemingly official names such as "El Gordo

  Sweepstakes Lottery" or even by utilizing actual lottery names such as

  "Once."

  For the full story please visit:

  http://www.psp.state.pa.us/psp/cwp/view.asp?A=3&Q=173540 or the PA State

  Police website:

  http://www.psp.state.pa.us/

  Thank You,

  SA Michael J. McKeown

  FBI Pittsburgh Division

  Infragard Coordinator Pittsburgh Chapter

  (412)432-4416

  mmckeown@leo.gov

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