JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Andrea Adams nearly fell for a scam that is currently circulating in six Florida counties, including Duval and St. Johns counties. The Duval County woman recently received a call from a number that appeared to be coming from Lawrence, Kansas, her hometown.
She said she normally would not answer any call on her cellphone coming from a number she did not recognize but said she thought it might have something to do with her father, who lives in Lawrence.
“I thought maybe something was wrong and it was him calling, so I picked up,” she explained.
It was not her father, but a man who introduced himself as a deputy with the Douglas County Sheriff’s office, in Kansas.
“He proceeded to tell me that there were three warrants out for my arrest and, I, of course, went, ‘What?’” said Adams.
He told her she had failed to appear for jury duty and that three warrants had been issued as a result; “one is avoiding civic duty, one is contempt of court, and one is for failure to appear for court,” explained Adams. Each warrant, she was told, carried a $900 fine.
She was then given three options. She could travel to the Douglas County Sheriff’s office in Kansas and pay the fines. The judge would release the warrants and refund her money if she could prove that she had attended jury duty. She could do nothing and then a deputy would come to her house, arrest her and fingerprint her.
“The third option is you can be transferred to our financial department and they will go ahead and set you up with how you can get these warrants released,” said Adams.
She was told she could pay the fine using one of several different Cash Apps. Adams was suspicious from the start. She works with the elderly, teaching them about fraud and avoiding scams. But, she admits she was thrown by the coincidences involved with the call.
She had just served jury duty in Duval County and second-guessed whether there had been some kind of mistake involving her summons.
“I was fearful that there might be some truth because I’m not informed of the law enough, and I did just go to jury duty and did live in Lawrence, Kansas, and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, what if the mail didn’t get to me,’ I don’t know,” she explained.
She was also worried about getting arrested. She has two young children. She agreed to be transferred to the financial department. She said the man who answered sounded like a different person and spoke perfect English. Many scams originate from other countries and the caller has an accent or speaks as if English is not his/her native language. The caller was also very convincing.
“He had case numbers, they had badge numbers, judges’ names, they had numbers set up so that I could call to make sure it was the sheriff’s office. He said go ahead and call,” Adams said.
She did call the number he provided, and that it was the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office.
“This was a very intelligent, very, very complex game,” she explained. “I kept saying this is a scam, this is ridiculous, this can’t be true,” she told the “deputy” on the line. “And every time I did that, they’d say ‘ma’am, I just wanna let you know this call is being recorded.’”
She said it was his way of intimidating her if she tried to hang up.
After two hours on the call, Adams tried something else to check to see if she had any outstanding warrants.
“I got on my computer and kept stalling with him. I looked up our local Duval County sheriff’s department and I found the Internal Affairs department. Someone there transferred me to the electronic crimes department,” she said.
She spoke to a detective there, explained what the man on the other line was telling her.
“She (the detective) said you can never have a warrant out for your arrest for missing jury duty,” said Adams. “I will never be arrested for that, she said.”
Adams hung up. She is sharing her story so no one else falls for the scam.
“If they almost got me to pay money, I can’t imagine how much money they are making on this, and it just breaks my heart,” said Adams.
News4JAX spoke with a St. Johns County man who did fall for the same scam. He paid $800 after receiving a call suggesting he had missed jury duty and needed to pay the money to avoid being arrested. The caller actually contacted his mother in New York and left a message with her to have her son call him about a “civil matter.”
When he called the number, the caller identified himself as a sheriff’s deputy and used the same ruse as what Adams experienced.
However, he told the St. Johns County man that his phone was being tracked and that if he hung up he would be arrested. He instructed him to drive to an address provided, which turned out to be a grocery store, buy two moneypak gift cards and then read the numbers to the “deputy” over the phone.
While he suspected it was a scam, the St. Johns County man is new to the area and was concerned about being arrested without any family in the state. He is relieved that the bank he uses refunded him the lost money and has opened a fraud claim.
He also called the St. Johns County clerk of court’s office to alert it that a scammer is using the clerk’s name, Brandon Patty, to dupe people into thinking the scam is real. Last week, the clerk’s office issued a warning to St. Johns County residents.
You should know the scammer who called Adams used different techniques than the normal red flags. In addition, to speaking perfect English and using correct grammar and providing a seemingly legitimate phone number for a callback, they asked Adams to pay with a cash app. Traditionally, they ask for a pre-paid card or gift card for payment and often have an accent, suggesting they are calling from another country.
Tom Stephens, president of the Better Business Bureau, Northeast Florida, said he’s not surprised to hear the scammers are changing their techniques.
“They’re evolving,” he explained, and you should know they are well funded and very organized. “They’re basically a criminal operation. They have very sophisticated technology. They are a business. Their business happens to be illegal. They have all the assets and the equipment they need to scam people.”
He said he thinks it was probably a fluke that the call Adams received was purposely designed to come from her hometown. But said you should know, “they (scammers) have the ability to spoof phone numbers. They could be sitting in Canada and spoofed a phone number and an area code in Kansas,” said Stephens.
Regardless, he said, you should understand that if you miss jury duty, you are not going to receive a call from anyone.
“You will receive a letter in the mail that says you need to contact a number and discuss why you missed jury duty,” Stephens said.
Also, he said, “missing jury duty is not a felony. It is not even a misdemeanor. It’s a contempt of court situation,” said Stephens. “So in order for there to be some kind of fine imposed, you would have to go to court in front of a judge.”
Stephens also said the clerk of court’s office will not send you a bill in the mail.
“It doesn’t work that way,” he explained.
Another important point to understand: Even if you went to court and a judge decided you needed to be fined for missing jury duty, which would require several missed summonses, in the state of Florida the fine is a maximum of $100, said Stephens.
The U.S. Marshals’ office in Southeast Georgia issued an alert Wednesday about the same jury scam. According to a news release, the U.S. Marshals Service indicated the scheme has proven to be highly successful at both the local and national level.
The Florida Attorney General’s office issued a scam alert warning Tuesday, as well, that the jury scam is circulating in the state. It indicated that there has been an increase in the number of people targeted and specifically listed reports of the scams in Citrus, Collier, Lake, Polk and St. Johns counties. To guard against this scam, Attorney General Ashley Moody asks you to follow these tips:
- Know that jury duty summons will come by mail, not by phone or email
- If no jury duty summons is received, then ignore a phone call from anyone claiming to be calling about jury duty
- Contact a local court clerk’s office using the Florida Courts map to see if there is a valid jury duty issue
- Never give personal or financial information over the phone to a stranger, especially if the caller acts aggressively
- Recognize that anyone asking for payments to be made through a gift card is a scammer
- Be wary of Caller ID, as this can be spoofed, making a phone call look like it is coming from a real source
Report suspected jury duty scams to the local County Clerk’s office using the Florida Clerks website and to local law enforcement. Anyone who encounters a jury duty scam, or any other type of fraud, can also file a complaint with the Florida Attorney General’s Office online at MyFloridaLegal.com or by calling 1(866) 9NO-SCAM.