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Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Not So New Scam - Jury Duty

Some people must lie awake nights thinking of new ways to defraud honest folk.

My San Francisco buddy "L" just forwarded this to me. The Snopes warning was issued in 2005 the FBI warning in 2006. It's been around for awhile but it's legit.

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From the FBI warning:

The phone rings, you pick it up, and the caller identifies himself as an officer of the court. He says you failed to report for jury duty and that a warrant is out for your arrest. You say you never received a notice. To clear it up, the caller says he'll need some information for "verification purposes"-your birth date, social security number, maybe even a credit card number.

This is when you should hang up the phone. It's a scam.

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Of course it is. The caller now has all your personal info and will steal your identity. The Court will not call you. They will send you a letter, on their letterhead which you can verify with a phone call.

In other news, not much. I spoke to the girls the other day (two of them at least) and they seem to be doing well. Rebecca was grounded but that's nothing new. Rochelle enjoyed her birthday.

We've had rain and wind, and a small city a couple of counties to the south of us even had a small tornado. It seems like they always head for the trailer parks and this one was no exception. It was strong enough to remove some roofs (rooves?) and knock down a few trees but no injuries.

Why is the plural of hoof hooves but I think I was right the first time about roof. I wonder how people who were not born to this language ever learn it.

Enough of that. Life continues uneventfully around here. One of my coffee date friends is leaving for NYC and then Israel later in the week and will be gone until late February. I'll be watching the news from there closely. On the other hand, my friend Dave who's been traveling around the country for a year will return in a couple of weeks. I've been following his journey on his blog ever since he began and occasionally wish I'd stowed away. He's safely in Southern California so now all he has to do is navigate the next 8 hours and hope most of our snow will have left by the time he heads for home.

He emailed me to ask if I was interested in coffee. Of course I am. We have a lot to catch up on and email isn't quite the same as sitting in Barnes & Noble chatting back and forth.

Son Jim, currently on the Mexican border with the National Guard, may be heading for Iraq. It's up in the air. He was scheduled a couple of years ago but an old, service incurred back injury kept him here at the last minute. Now they can't quite make up their minds (at least the last I heard).

Son Tim and I are planning on a trip north to meet one of my blogging friends in late February. Her sister is directing a performance of "Jesus Christ, Superstar" (in Concord at the Willows Theatre for any of you who are familiar with the San Francisco Bay Area). It should be fun. I know the film but I've never seen the live production although Tim has. And it will be wonderful to meet yet another blogging friend and one I've felt a very special link with.

We'll go down on the train early Friday the 22nd, spend the night, and come back sometime Saturday. I am so looking forward to it. We probably won't leave terribly early Saturday so if anyone's in that area and wants to try for a coffee date, we're up for it. My phone # is on the bottom of my emails.

Thanks to all of you for the comments. Sorry I haven't posted more but, as I was saying to an online friend, I wonder how interesting it can be to read about, the weather or the roast I prepared the other day and the salmon loaf from yesterday (turned out real well - one of the few things for which I had to google a recipe). Mine had always turned out a little dry in the past - this one was okay.

Or it may be just the wintertime blahs.

Have a good weekend and take care everyone. Perhaps I will finally update the blogroll again. It's not too out of date but I can think of a couple of friends I've missed.

18 comments:

ipm said...

it's always good to hear what's going on there... :))) much love to you all!

The Future Was Yesterday said...

"I wonder how interesting it can be to read about, the weather or the roast I prepared the other day and the salmon loaf from yesterday."

Sounds pretty dang good to me!!

mreddie said...

I had been reading about the rough weather you folks have been having out there. We have had more rain in the last three weeks than probably all last summer and we may get more tomorrow. The pond is still not full though. ec

Merle said...

Dear Ann ~~ Always another new scam -
they keep at it don't they? I have a letter saying I am permanently relieved of jury duty, so they won't catch me. Glad you have spoken to Rochelle and Rebecca. They must have some discipline where they are for Rebecca to be grounded.Glad your Coffee friend is almost home again. It is never boring to read a few lines about what you have been up to, so we know you are OK. The storms have been bad with roofs ?? blown off
and power outages. Glad you are safe. Hope Ray is keeping well.
Take care, Love, Merle.

Diane@Diane's Place said...

I'd already gotten an email about the scam a while back. Thanks for the info, though.

Same ol' same ol' here too. We may get some snow overnight into Thursday. We'll see. I'm not getting excited or buying stock in snow shovels just yet.

I've got a few numbers on that project you asked me to check into. I haven't called yet. I wondered if you'd rather I emailed you the numbers or called them for you. Just let me know what you want to do about it.

Take care of yourself, Ann. ;o)

Love and hugs,

Diane

Pat said...

Ann: thanks for the scam warning - a new one on me. Enjoy the trip with your sons - that'll chase the blues away . Mine comes next week. Yippee!

Margaret said...

Hi Anne, one would think if the "scammers" used their brains in a more conventional way they could make a nice living. Always interesting to hear from your weather roast or what ever. Cheers and hugs Margaret

Cheerio said...

Yes! I agree with you about the scam. Probably these people break their heads just like you said not sleeping just thinking of how and whom to scam. I sometimes wonder if they still can sleep not only of thinking how and whom to scam but also on what they have done if they still have conscience.

Janice Seagraves said...

Hi Ann,

I'm glad to see you blogging again--even if it's scams or the pot roast!

I hope your trip is a lot of fun.

Now here's something for you;
Give this heart ♥ to
every person you care about
including me if you care.
Try to collect 12 ♥
Its not easy so giving you this dare.

Janice~

clairesgarden said...

always love to hear what your up to Granny! glad your in touch with the girls and they're enjoying birthdays.

ancient one said...

Hi Ann,

I enjoy your blog no matter what you talk about! Hope you have a good time with your son and friend!!

Puss-in-Boots said...

Hey Ann...Good to see you back. How nice to catch up on all your news. But I know what you mean by not having much to blog about. I've been a bit the same lately.

Glad to hear Rebecca and Rochelle are okay...do you hear from Elcie or is she still not speaking?

How is Ray these days? Obviously things are ticking along nicely with you two...I'm sure we'd have heard otherwise.

Snow...yep, you can keep it. It's very humid here at the moment, but I'll take that over the cold any day.

Well, you and Dave will have a lot to catch up on...do Barnes and Noble have overnight stays???

Glad all is well with you.

Hugs

Unknown said...

It seems the two most prevalent emotions hooked by scammers are greed and, like this one, fear.

Thanks for posting this, Ann.

Karen H. said...

Good Morning Granny,
I always enjoy hearing about you and how you and Ray are doing and what is going on with yall. You can blog about PB&J Sandwiches and I would still enjoy it. LOL. "THANK YOU" for the info about the latest Scam. There ought to be a way to stop all that stuff. I'm glad you got to talk to the girls. We had some winds here last week and we were without power for 11 hours and it got cold that night as well. We didn't get any Snow that they said we might get. We did see a few flakes mixed in with some Sleet and Rain. All we got was mostly rain. I heard about that Tornado out there on The Weather Channel. I'm a weather geek. LOL. I do keep up with it so I can let my DH know. I did that one time last year and they were able to take a different route to get to their location. I hope Jim doens't have to go to Iraq. I sure do wish they would just let all of our Troops come home. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH ALREADY!!!! That is my opinion anyway. I hope you and your friend has a good time next month meeting with each other. I think that is so neat to be able to met a blogging friend. You will have to take some pictures when you go and share them with us. I would like to meet Diane and her Sisters someday. We don't live that far apart from each other. Maybe when it gets warmer and we aren't as busy we can meet in Jonesboro and have coffee together one day. Take care my friend and have a great day. May God Bless You and Yours.

Love & Hugs,
Karen H.

Merle said...

Dear Ann ~~ There is an award for you at my blog. Enjoy. Much love, Merle.

Margaret said...

Just dropped by to say hello
Cheers and hugs Margaret

Lucy Stern said...

Car 54, where are you?

Sarah Elaine said...

Crazy scams they come up with. It's good people like you help disspell them.

I understand about the winter time blahs. We just had a week of -30C. This week seems balmy at -10C or so.