They say a fool and his money are soon parted, but modern-day scammers are getting so sophisticated that many non-foolish folks are being taken in as well. The federal courts and the U.S. Marshals Service are warning people not to fall for a jury duty scam that is particularly popular right now, and we want to share this information with our clients since it has a legal angle.
The Con
Apparently, scammers have been calling people and claiming that the victim must pay a fine or be thrown in jail because they missed jury duty. Many people are falling for the scam because it sounds like something that could really happen. People do get fined and sometimes imprisoned for skipping out on jury duty.
Plus the scammers have a good script. They drop the names of actual judges, know the address of the local courthouse, and even give out supposed badge numbers since they are posing as U.S. Marshals. Some callers also use spoofing technology to make it look like they are calling from a courthouse or other government building. These scammers can be very convincing!
Don’t fall for it!
Be extremely skeptical is someone claims to be an official calling you from the courthouse. Courts don’t make these sorts of calls unless you are involved with a case. Even then, they will probably call your lawyer, not you. And courts never ask people to pay fines over the phone.
If you are being summoned for jury duty, or you missed jury duty and are being fined, the courts will send you notice through the mail. Any other sort of communication is a fake.
If It Happens To You
If a jury scammer gets you on the line, hang up immediately and then report them to the authorities. Don’t just contact the local police, report the incident to your local U.S. Marshals Service office and to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). The FTC has the ability to detect patterns of fraud from the information collected and share that data with law enforcement. The U.S. Marshals hope the information collected by the FTC will lead to possible arrests.
Be Safe
Keep in mind that it is never wise to give out personal or financial information to some random caller or emailer, no matter who they say they are or what they threaten you with. If you think a call or email asking you to pay a fine or debt or verify your information is legitimate, you can always stop and call or visit the organization the caller claimed to represent to verify what is going on.
If you do a call to see what is up, remember to look up the number you will call to verify yourself, don’t call a number given to you by a potential scammer because it will probably put you in touch with another fraudster.
Our firm is also willing to help people figure out if a call allegedly from the courts is real. That’s literally what we exist for! So, don’t be afraid to reach out if you get a call that seems a little fishy.