--Cyber Criminals' New Stretch--Subpoenas to Appear Before a Grand Jury, Transmitted by Email, No Less--Latest Innovative Scam by the Con Man
A cat will blink when hit in the head with a Ball Peen Hammer.
An equally severe blow is If you receive an email ordering you to appear before a Grand Jury as a witness, under threat of a Contempt of Court proceeding. What would you do? a) Verify it by checking it out with the Court? b) Report it to police authorities? c) Comply with the terms? Or, d) Soil yourself?. Do nothing more, out of sheer mental paralysis brought on by fear?
When you are suckered, robbed, spit on, knocked down, and kicked by the cyber criminals, you could ask yourself, what would Clint Eastwood do?
But, when you've learned that you can keep on puking long after you think you've finished, there are good, logical, less violent answers, too: a and b would be the only "way to fly"...c would be a gift of your identity to a con artist...and, d) would only be messy, and wouldn't accomplish anything.
Don't trust anyone who bleeds for a week and doesn't die. This is the premise the cyber criminals are working on, the reason for the fierce bludgeoning It is therefore up to you to speedily throw up a staunch defense to stop them cold.
Slick. This new scam of the cyber criminals has all the trappings: You are commanded to testify before a Grand Jury. The email flashes its claim to "authenticity" by including a case number, code, full name and address of the supposed Federal Court involved, with room number, and even a phony court officer's name and court seal.
What's the catch? How does this cyber criminal score?
As soon as you click on the designated link supplied--gotcha. Malicious code will be downloaded onto your computer, a virus which will gobble up your personal data so as to construct a personal profile of you. In short, identity theft.
Heavy handed? You bet. The email "subpoena" contains language threatening you with Contempt of Court charges if you fail to appear. This, of course, menaces you with a fine, and/or, imprisonment. (Like microwaving cats for fun and profit.) As someone peering into a mirror for signs of illness, you now feel like you're inflicted with a touch of madness. But, don't forget, a bird in hand makes it harder to blow your nose Thus, we urge you again, for emphasis. mount a quick defense.
Among other things, report it to:
www.ic3.gov
......then get on with a full report to Police or FBI, as previously noted.
You always get the greatest recognition for the job you least like. But remember, this is not exactly like getting a traffic ticket for overtime parking and trying to cop out by pleading insanity. This is something you must do, rationally.
On the keyboard of life always keep one finger on "Escape."
Thursday, August 7, 2008
Grand Jury Subpoena Via Email--If you get One, What will You Do?
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22 comments:
Con Man:
Great post. Frankly, I never thought of getting a summons to appear for jury duty through an e-mail. But of course, it can happen. Thanks for education me. And I will notify the authorities if I should get one.
I get a lot of strange e-mails these days. I try not to open them if I don't recognize the sender, but, sometimes they are awfully enticing - especially when they refer to me by my actual name. That always blows my mind.
As always, a very informative and well written post.
happy trails.
Grand Jury subpoenas by email? To they really get away with this?
What would Clint Eastwood do? Jack, that's got to be one of your best lines ever.
I got hit with one of these a while ago. The court seal impressed me. I didn't soil myself, but I did ignore. Nothing ever happened.
Yes, Swu, these are the more efficient frauds, when you are sought out by name. I never could figure out why the PayPal scam was so successful with a no-name intro, something like Dear User, or something like that.
I've got to agree with you, Ione. Grand Jury subpoenas by email are a real stretch of the belief system. Yet, that always work, for some strange, unfathomable reason.
So, the court seal did it for Anonymous. Hmmm!
Why is it that the Contempt of Court threat hangs so heavy over most people's heads? I don't think I would go so far as to say that I would soil myself with receiving a threat like this, but it seems to scare the living hell out of most people.
This is a really heavy handed scam if ever I heard of one. Can't these people really be sent up the river for imitating a court? I would think this would be one of those cases where law enforcement authorities could not ignore or slough off lightly.
I like your lead line too, Jack. A cat will blink when hit in the head with a ball peen hammer. That says a lot...a high hard one leading right to the points you are trying to make.
I don't know why it is, Warren, but the Contempt of Court threat does seem to intimidate more severely than a lot of other con man threats. Maybe it's because of the societal stigma.
I've got a post coming up on imitating the F.B.I., Dreamer. This one is as risky as Courts, or, maybe even more so. Watch for it.
Just wanted to commend you on your writings here. As a certified network admin, myself, I can attest to just how little common sense some people can have when it comes to scams, phishing, etc., etc. I even had to stop my best friend from falling for the classic Nigerian scam once.
Keep up the good work!
Something of this much import would not be casually emailed to a recipient. This would make anything "official" sent to my unofficial email address (for example: boomchacalaccalacca@yogibear.com)highly suspect immediately in my opinion. If it were authentic and they needed me that badly, call me or send an agent by my house - Nards
Same as Lana. I also had a friend who was winking at the Nigerian scam, and I had to talk fast to talk her out of it. The gullibility of people always astounds me. How could anyone in their right mind believe that millions of dollars would be coming their way just for holding money?
I like this phrase: a bird in hand makes it harder to blow your nose. I don't quite know how it fits, but I love the phrase.
It is indeed tough, Sarah and Lana, to even begin to believe how anyone could fall for these ridiculously obvious Nigerian scams. But, alas, the way it is is the way it is is the way it is.
Nards, you've got a problem. You have fallen victim to logic and reasoning ability as key components of your thinking process. You are completely "taken in" by a common sense approach to problem solving. Perhaps you need professional help.
How about, Don't trust anybody who bleeds for a week and doesn't die.
That's my favorite from the keyboard of the great wordmaster.
The harsh statement, "Microwaving cats for fun and profit," did it for me.
Didn't you say not long ago that you had something coming up on social security, Jack? I seem to recall, or am I wrong? Do these scamsters go more out of their way to go after social security recipients, like scaring them with Grand Jury Subpoenas?
Jack you keep cracking me up and no I'm not heading for professional help like Nards. You just have a knack for rendering the serious in a hilarious way and you are informative too. I'm going to alert my mother to this one again all the time reminding her to keep hovering over the escape key.
Not social security beneficiaries explicitly, Terry. But, my next post, going up this week, is about Sr. Citizens, in general, and the reasons why they are the Number 1 target of con men. Normally, I'd say, watch for it. But, in your case I don't have to. You are probably the most active of my readers, commenting twiwce, sometimes three times per post. If I had just 50 people like you, I'd have the hottest blog on the internet.
Don't try to fool me, Dee. I'll just bet that you suffer from the logic / reasoning / common sense disease too.
And, I am glad that you, like a good daughter, are keeping your mother constantly poised to hit the "Escape? key of life.
Hmmm - Our district clerk never sends em out in email (yet)
I guess it would be easy to fall for
The scammers are getting very clever. I guess most people do not think they would not get an email about a Grand Jury subpoena, so they are shocked and want to see what it is about.
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