Jury Duty Scam

[HawkinsHollow]

So I get a message today from a guy claiming he was from the state jury commission. I call him back and we get disconnected after a few minutes of talking before we get tot to the real meat of the conversation. I tried to call back a couple times without reaching him, he finally calls me back and I answer. He says that I missed jury duty in a federal court case, and someone must have signed the registered letter on my behalf and the judge issued a bench warrant for me. Knew my name, phone and address. Said some crap about I had to go down to the courthouse and sign with this machine to see whether or not it was actually my signature on the registered mail or not. Was very convincing, said I need to go now. I told him I couldn't so he said ok I will call you tomorrow and we will set it up. But don't go to the courthouse otherwise you will be arrested, he needed to set it up first. He mentioned a fine of $3500 for each charge and said it cannot be paid over the phone but we will talk more about it tomorrow and then we hung up. Oh yeah, he also said he needed to wait to let me off the phone until his manager Ok'd it. He said he would call tomorrow and he hung up. He talked really fast, had all kinds of statutes and rules he was spouting off about, sounded pretty official. He was African American but spoke perfect English. He wasn't some dude from Bangladesh. All kinds of red flags were going off in my head the entire time; it was really loud in his office, I thought there is no way the wife signed for this thing without telling me, this is not how the Federal court system would handle this, etc. But in the back of my head I thought to myself, I better hear this guy out. Could see how some ppl could fall for it I guess. But no sane person would not get off the phone with them and immediately Google, jury duty scam. It must pay off though or it wouldn't happen. Crazy world we are livin' in!

 

[tacticalturnip]

Unfortunately someone will fall for it, good to see it wasn't you.

I'd not heard of this scam, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Thank you for posting.

 

[QRTRHRS]

I have recently read that this scam was also circulating around in KY. This type of scam and AI in general is why I only answer callers that I know. I figure if it's important then they will leave a message. That and I do not have any rich relatives that are going to leave me some money, lol!

 

[Complete Turf Care]

I had one call me a few days ago. I let him go on for a while then I asked him how much money he wanted.

He giggled and then hung up on me.

 

[2manyrocks]

Jury Scam Alert | Eastern District of Tennessee | United States District Court

www.tned.uscourts.gov

The federal court clerk's office handles all jury duty. If you have the scammers contact info, I suppose you could report it to your local police or sheriff's department.

 

[ultrarunner]

Early mornings I answer the security desk phone at work… every morning scam calls and some mornings a lot of them.

Just shows there are those with ill intent and the number is growing.

Often just answering with the business name results in a hang up… for others asking me asking for patient name and date of birth is a hang up.

Unfortunately, I know several elderly widows that have lost money on phone scams…

When a patient is ready for discharge we call the number given and almost 100% it goes to voice mail as the screening method of choice…

The public is just so tired of scammers.

 

[Runner]

I never answer my phone anymore unless it's a number I know. However, when I used to get calls like this, I would just say I can't talk right now, give me your name and number and I'll call you back. They always hung up on me.

 

[pmsmechanic]

I told a scammer once that I needed a security deposit before I could do business with him. There was a very satisfying click.

If I get a call from a number I don't know I'll pick up but won't say anything. The scammers computer is waiting for you to say hello. Most of the time if there's nothing after several seconds I'll just hang up.

I wish there was an app that would automatically transfer the call to a 1 900 number that would cost them.

 

[Complete Turf Care]

One that I use when I have time and feel like messing with scammers is I answer the phone with "Chicks with Dicks! How can I help you?" That usually stuns them for a few seconds, then they hang up.

Lately I've been getting 2 or 3 calls a day of a recording saying they have reviewed my file and the $180,000 line of credit that I applied for has been approved but they need a little more information to get the money into my account. Press 2 to speak to an agent.

 

[ponytug]

Big call centers in unregulated areas of the world; e.g. Myanmar.

Tens of thousands could be held in illegal scam compounds in Myanmar, Thai police general says

Head of anti-trafficking agency says dozens of Chinese criminal gangs were running the centres

www.theguardian.com

As long as there is money to be scammed, they are going to keep trying and innovating. Fake invoices to businesses are a constant issue.

At home, if you aren't in our known caller list, the call goes straight to voicemail, and our cells have automatic spam identification, but it isn't 100%, both ways, in part because scammers can so easily generate fake caller ID of legitimate numbers.

All the best, Peter