Scammers are big on
hiding behind fake names and titles. Some pretend to work in government or law
enforcement to sound more credible. In fact, we’ve heard from hundreds of
people who got calls from fake ‘court officials’ about jury duty. In the calls,
fraudsters claimed to be court officers, accused people of skipping jury duty
and said they had to pay a fine immediately or face arrest. If you get a call
like that, hang up. That’s not a real official calling.
People said some scammers
acted like ‘good guys.’ They offered to ‘review the file’ or said ‘you have a
clean record’ and could just ‘make things right’ by paying the fine with a
reloadable card. Others took the ‘bad guy’ role. They berated people for
ignoring their mail, claimed to be holding an arrest warrant, and told
listeners ‘don’t you dare hang up until you buy that reloadable card and read
me the code.’ A few extra-greedy scammers told people the first reloadable card
‘didn’t go through’ and demanded a second payment.
The National Center for
State Courts says court officers will never call or email you and require
payment for failing to appear for jury duty. If you get a summons for jury duty
and don’t go, you might get a letter telling you to come to court on certain
date to explain why you missed jury duty. If someone asks you to pay a fine for
missing jury duty, hang up and call your local court or law enforcement
department. Then report it to
the FTC.
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