Miscellaneous

Of Scams and Skeptics

By Anne Skove, Esq.

Remember the jury scam? Back in our Jur-E Bulletin days, we often wrote about the phenomenon of faux jury administrators calling unsuspecting citizens in an attempt to get personal information (SSN, financial, etc.) from them.

Even though we read the warnings from just about every state court administrative office in the country, and many more from individual jury administrators, we were skeptical (also tired of writing about it). Did hoaxsters try this? Were people really taken in? Was it an urban legend?

It did happen, though perhaps not nearly as often as the warnings made it sound. And perhaps the warnings helped spread the idea, who knows. We believe Chris Connelly may have played a part -- like some twisted episode of He-Man where french-fry-haired Prince Adam and the steroid-enhanced Most Powerful Man in the Universe are always in the same room together, Chris and the scam seemed to show up simultaneously! What were the odds?

Now comes another similar scam, this time involving would-be voters (but not Chris). Rather than cold calls, these hoaxsters rely on fliers posted in low-income neighborhoods telling people that voters with outstanding warrants, unpaid parking tickets, criminal records, or those guilty of other offenses could be arrested at the polls when they show up to vote.

Is this really happening? According to one report (see below), fliers have been spotted in certain parts of Philly. Maybe all it takes is a few fliers to get the national grapevine chatting about the "dangers" of voting.

Whether it will actually keep voters home on Election Day remains to be seen, although the report below notes that many do believe the fliers and are discouraged from voting.

Even weighing the possibility that exposing the hoax could spawn copycats, those responsible for outstanding warrants and traffic tickets would do well to follow the lead of jury administrators and administer some truth to the public. Like jury service, voting is essential to our citizenship and should be protected.

See/hear Voter Intimidation in Philadelphia, Fresh Air (October 8, 2008), noting the skeptics and believers in the comments section. See also Vote-Scam Fliers Target Black Neighborhoods, Catherine Lucey, Philadelphia Daily News (October 2, 2008).

In Colorado, a county clerk alerted Colorado College officials that out-of-state students claimed as dependents on their parents' taxes were ineligible to vote (not so). In Maryland, there is an ugly (untrue) rumor that people whose homes are foreclosed upon are ineligible to vote. See Voter Beware, Baltimore Sun (October 1, 2008), and College Students Still Face Voting Stumbling Blocks, Laura Fitzpatrick, Time (October 14, 2008).

In the same vein, see Some Concerned over Voter Registration Flyer, CBS 11 News (September 23, 2008). This northern Texas scam involves a flyer from a person claiming to be a deputy registrar. Readers are asked to a) vote for Palin and b) allow the "deputy registrar" to hand-deliver the person's voter registration materials to the county voting officials.

Full post as published by court-o-rama.org on October 14, 2008 (boomark / email).