‘You did not report for Jury Duty. Now, we have warrants for your arrest.’
This is the message many Hall County citizens are receiving as part of the most recent jury duty phone scam to hit the area.
“(Citizens) were instructed to go and purchase Green Dot MoneyPak Cards (prepaid cards) over at Kroger or Walmart to get rid of or to relieve themselves from two warrants that had been issued because they didn’t show up for court or jury duty,” Hall County Sheriff’s Office Deputy Chad Mann said.
This reoccurring scam feeds off peoples’ fears of going to jail as many are quick to transfer hundreds of dollars over to these scammers to avoid what they think is impending jail time should they not comply.
“We have (this scam) every single year,” Mann said. “It usually hits its peak between January and April. Tax season.”
The scammers will manipulate a person’s caller ID to make it seem like they are receiving a call from the sheriff’s office and introduce themselves as Lieutenant Smith.
To keep a person on the line, the scam artist will ask to verify that they have ‘called the correct violator’ and will ask to confirm the person’s identity by soliciting personal information including their name, date of birth, Social Security number and other ID theft-worthy details.
“If you get one of these calls,” Mann said. “Make sure you hang up on them as quickly as possible. Don’t give them any personal identity information, no kind of financial information and definitely share the information with your friends and family so that everybody gets this and we’re not having to re-go through this another year.”
It is important to note that authentic jury duty notifications are nearly always delivered by mail.
“Whatever the problem is, we’re not going to call you on the phone and say we have a warrant for your arrest. You need to go take care of that right now,” Mann said. “We usually don’t give folks a heads-up when we have a warrant out.”
If there are any questions about the legitimacy of someone calling with threats of an arrest warrant, contact the Hall County Sheriff’s Office Crime Prevention and Community Service Unit at (770) 533-7659.
