Franklin Co Clerk of Court Warns that the Jury Duty Scam Circulating Again

Another round of Jury duty scams is circulating in our area.

This week Franklin County Clerk of Court Heather Vaughn Hill announced that her office has received a number of calls from people saying they missed jury duty and are afraid of being arrested.

Vaughn said the callers tell her they received a text or call stating there’s a warrant out for their arrest because they missed jury duty or they owe money but she emphasized it’s a scam.

This scam also circulated in Franklin County last year.

According to the Better Business Bureau, here’s how the scam works:

You answer the phone, and it’s someone claiming to be from the local law enforcement or judicial agency.

The caller tells you that you’ve missed a jury duty summons and could be arrested.

In the Franklin County cases, they make it sound legit by identifying themselves as either Sheriff Thomas or one of his deputies. The caller ID might even show the Sheriff’s office phone number or the Clerk of Court’s office number.

The scammer tells you that his on his way to arrest you but fortunately, you can avoid arrest by paying a fine and he asks his victim to wire money or put cash on a prepaid debit card and share the PIN.

Of course, the fine – and the jury duty summons – are fake and if you send money, it’s gone forever with no hope of ever getting it back. Plus, they may have even got some of your personal information which could cause you even more headaches later.

Like most long-running scams, jury duty cons have a few versions, not all of which ask you for money outright.

In some cases, the jury duty scam may be used to trick you into providing sensitive, personal information that can be used for identity theft.

In another version, scammers use email and allegedly attach your “jury summons” to the message.

But that attached file is really malware and downloading it will infect your computer.

Sheriff Thomas asks people who have received such a call to get in touch with his office and report it.

You can also report the scam to the Better Business Bureau online by going to bbb.org/scamtracker.