The jury duty scam is becoming more sophisticated
By Greg Collier
As we have previously mentioned, the jury duty scam is probably one of the most prevalent scams going on out there today. As you may know, scammers will call their victims posing as local or federal authorities. The scammers then tell their victims that they missed jury duty and there’s a warrant out for the victim’s arrest. Then the scammers ask the victim for money, so the victim can avoid arrest. Like most scams, they’ll ask for payment in virtually untraceable ways like money transfers, gift cards, and cryptocurrency.
The first tip off that this may be a scam is the fact that the scammers are calling you. If you actually missed jury duty, you would receive a summons in the mail from whatever court you were supposed to be reporting to. It seems that enough people have caught on to the jury duty scam that the scammers are changing their tactics, and it begins with a letter in the mail.
According to law enforcement in the state of Oklahoma, residents have been receiving official looking documents in the mail telling residents that they’ve missed jury duty. However, the letters are being followed up with phone calls to the residents, with the scammers once again posing as law enforcement and threatening arrest. They’re then telling the residents that they need to pay a fine right then and there over the phone.
The phone call is the tell because law enforcement will never call you to threaten you with arrest, and court fines are not paid over the phone.
If you receive one of these letters or a letter like this, call the agency or office in claims to be from. Don’t use any phone number that may be listed on the documentation. Those could lead you directly to the scammers. Instead, get the phone number from the agency’s or office’s website. It should be listed on their ‘contact us’ section.
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