06/04/2025
A local scam is where a person calls a potential victim, identifying themselves as a local police officer.
They will have the victim's personal information and phone number, derived from publicly available sources, and state that the victim failed to report for local or federal jury duty, and a fine must be paid.
The impersonators will then try and obtain payment via mail or in-person, sometimes meeting the victim or even escorting them to an ATM or purchasing gift cards to pay the “fine”.
They present a very polished demeanor and with the available information on the victim, make a convincing case that they are legitimate. They often have a spoofed phone number, matches that of a local agency to call for “verification” but when you call back, it’s a recorded message.
If you are contacted in this manner, report the information or any recorded conversations to the agency being impersonated. Do not give out financial information or meet with them in person.
Legitimate law enforcement efforts will have full identification, will not ask for cash or gift card payments and our courts generally handle money transactions through easily verifiable sources.
This has been occurring for many months but still finds victims. The scammer's script is similar to this:
• Pretended to be with law enforcement and gave him a name and badge number.
• Used words like summon for jury duty or arrest; gave a real judge’s name; and used court verbiage like gag order or arrest warrant.
• The caller had the victim write down information, repeat it back and kept him on the phone for about 30 minutes before asking for money.
• Callers spoof phone numbers to appear to be official law enforcement offices.
• Victims were not allowed to talk to anyone else or an attorney.
• A second person got on the phone to scare him into paying thousands of dollars.
