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  Geebo 8:00 am on July 23, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: gift cards ( 103 ), jury duty scam, north carolina ( 15 ), Scams ( 1,468 )   

  Scam victim led on terrifying goose chase 

  

  By Greg Collier

  The jury duty scam is one of the more prevalent scams being perpetrated today. Usually, the victim receives a phone call from a scammer posing as local law enforcement. They then tell the victim that the victim has missed jury duty and that they need to pay a fine, or they’ll be arrested. The victim is then instructed to go out and buy gift cards so they can pay the fictitious fine over the phone. Longtime readers will know that the only thing gift cards should be used for are gifts. While we know this to be true, not everyone has gotten the message yet.

  A woman from North Carolina recently found this out the hard way. She received a phone call from scammers posing as the federal government and told her that she missed jury duty on a federal jury. The scammers told her that she received a certified letter informing her of being selected for jury duty and that she signed for it. They kept the victim on the phone while she drove to several different convenience stores in the area to purchase prepaid debit cards. When she questioned the method of payment, the scammers told her that this is how everyone pays in court now. She was also told that she was being kept under surveillance, and she couldn’t tell anyone because she was under a ‘federal gag order’.

  Before it was all over, she had spent $6000 on prepaid debit cards, before giving the numbers to the scammers. They then informed her to go to the county sheriff’s office to sign some affidavits before letting her off the phone. The scammers may have even had her go to the sheriff’s office as part of a cruel joke because when she had gotten there, their office was closed for the day.

  While we can look back at this scam with hindsight, it can be terrifying for people who are caught in the middle of it. However, we can also use hindsight to warn people how not to fall for such a scam. If there was a warrant out for your arrest for skipping jury duty, you would receive a notice in the mail. Law enforcement agencies do not call citizens to threaten them with arrest. Gift cards and prepaid debit cards are the number one sign that something is a scam. This is not how everyone in court pays fines today. Court costs and fines are still paid by traditional means such as cash or credit cards. Lastly, legal gag orders are only issued to people who are involved in a current and ongoing court case. Gag orders are not just issued on random citizens.

  If you were to receive a phone call like this, you should hang up and call your local police department at their non-emergency number.

   

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  Geebo 8:00 am on May 7, 2021 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: arrest warrant ( 27 ), gift cards ( 103 ), impersonation scam ( 167 ), jury duty scam, police scam ( 38 ), Scams ( 1,468 )   

  Arrest warrant scammers now showing up at people’s homes 

  

  By Greg Collier

  One of the most common scams is the arrest warrant scam. A scammer will call a victim out of the blue claiming to be with the local police. The scammers will then tell the victim that there’s a warrant out for their arrest. Most of the time, the scammers will say it’s because the victim missed jury duty. This makes the thought of an arrest warrant more believable since missing jury duty is a pretty innocuous crime that most people could see happening to them. The victims are then instructed to make some kind of payment over the phone, usually by untraceable means like gift cards or money transfers. We want to stress that these scams were normally done over the phone because in at least one community a scammer has added a dangerous step to the scam.

  In Suffolk, Virginia, a man showed up at a woman’s doorstep asking for the woman’s son. The man said that he was with the Suffolk Sheriff’s Office and that her son had a warrant out for his arrest. The scammer identified himself as Lt. Johnson, however, the Suffolk Sheriff’s Office does not have a Lt. Johnson working for them. Thankfully, the woman did not open the door to the scammer, but the story doesn’t end there. The scammer called the son telling him there was a warrant for his arrest unless he made a $1500 payment in gift cards. In the family’s defense, none of them had ever been arrested before and didn’t know that this was not how arrest warrants work. Once payment was made the scammer even called them back to gloat. We can only imagine what would have happened if the woman had opened her door to the scammer.

  If there is a warrant out for someone’s arrest, police will approach the suspect’s home which makes this new version of the scam incredibly dangerous for the victim. However, typically, police will send at least two officers to execute an arrest warrant. Also, please keep in mind that no law enforcement agency whether local, state, or federal will ever ask for any kind of payment in gift cards.

  We believe scams like this continue to happen because there is not enough education about situations like this. Please consider sharing this post on social media so more people can be protected from this scam.

   
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  Geebo 8:00 am on June 4, 2020 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: impersonation scam ( 167 ), jury duty scam, phone scam ( 46 ), police scam ( 38 ), Scams ( 1,468 )   

  Police impersonation scams on the rise 

  

  Within the past few weeks, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of news articles about police impersonation scams. This is where scammers will pose as your local or state police and try to pressure their victims into making a large payment under the threat of arrest. The scammers will often call their victims and make the phone number look like they’re calling from the police department.

  These scams can take a number of forms. One of the most infamous ones is the jury duty scam. This is where the scammers will call you up and tell you that you missed jury duty and that a warrant is out for your arrest. Then they’ll tell you that the warrant can be withdrawn if you just pay them a fine over the phone. Sometimes the scammers will just say that you have a warrant out for your arrest and will forgo the jury duty angle. Other times, the scammers will just say that you owe a fine.

  What all of these scams have in common is that the scammers will try to pressure you into making a payment right away and over the phone. Police departments do not call people to tell them that they have warrants or owe fines. You will almost always receive that information by mail if it is legitimate. Scammers, on the other hand, will try to get you to make a payment either through gift cards or wire transfer. If you weren’t sure if a call you received from someone claiming to be the police was a scam or not, the gift cards should be a dead giveaway as no government agency accepts them as payment. As we have said in the past, gift cards are the currency of scammers due to the fact the cards can be emptied remotely and anonymously.

  If you receive one of these calls, just hang up. Don’t even engage with the scammers. However, you are asked that you report the calls to your local police.

   
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  Geebo 10:03 am on February 28, 2019 Permalink | Reply
  Tags: brushing scam ( 25 ), housing scam ( 4 ), jury duty scam, Scams ( 1,468 ), wire fraud ( 21 )   

  Brushing, jury duty, and a housing scam that could cost you a lot 

  

  Once again, it’s time to bring you three scams from across the country that could potentially affect you in your area.

  One scam that is being reported out of Raleigh, North Carolina is called a brushing scam. The scam may seem innocuous at first but has the potential to be costly. In the brushing scam, online retailers will send you a product of their’s unsolicited and at no charge to you. It’s all part of an international scheme to try to get favorable reviews online so the company can boast of getting higher star ratings. While getting free stuff sounds like a great deal, the products are often shoddy or something you have absolutely no use for. The potential for abuse comes from the fact that someone may have opened an account in your name to have the products delivered which could lead to fraudulent charges.

  In northwestern Iowa a phone scam is proliferating that threatens to send you to jail if you don’t pay a fee. In this scam, someone calls you posing as a county authority accusing you of skipping out on jury duty then demands a fine from you in the form of a gift card or PayPal payment in order for you to avoid arrest. If a government body has any kind of issue like this more often than not they will send you something in the mail rather than calling you, and as always you should never make payments over the phone using gift cards as they are virtually untraceable once the serial number is given out to someone. If you receive one of these calls, hang up and contact your local law enforcement.

  The last scam for today is not only pretty scary but could end up costing you your life savings. A man in Massachusetts was getting ready to close on a new house. He was waiting for an email on how to make the final payment. He first received one email with the proper instructions then almost immediately received an identical email stating that the previous email was wrong and for him to wire the money under these new instructions. It turns out the man wired $300,000 to a scammer who had gained access to his email account. According to the FBI in Boston, this scam has cost potential homebuyers $53,000,000 just across Massachusetts. If you receive emails like this contact the financial institution or realtor you’ve been dealing with immediately to determine which of the instructions is the correct one.

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