CHICO — Story time. Back in January, I had to drive out to Oroville for a jury summons — my first since my early 20s.
After a couple of days of jury selection, the deputy district attorney excused me from service. Not even a month later, I received another summons despite California’s one day, one trial rule. Well in my attempt to opt out for the second one, I learned of what must be a pretty serious problem since the state put out multiple alerts on it: jury scams.
According to an alert by the Judicial Branch of California, many states have had to put warnings out of fake jury summons scams. Essentially, scammers are calling folks and claiming to be law enforcement or court officials and telling people that they missed jury duty and therefore better pay up if they want to avoid jail time.
The caller informs the target that the best way to handle it without getting into even more alleged trouble is to hand over financial information, be it a credit card or banking account numbers, and settle the problem financially.
Like most of these “you’re in trouble” scams, they want you to panic. If you panic, you’re more likely to give in and just pay to make it all go away.
The state judicial office is adamant that those who receive these calls do not provide any information and instead call up the fraud alert number at 1-800-952-521.
Locally, our jury duty number is 530-532-7001, which is another reference point you can use if you get a suspicious call.
Stay safe out there folks.
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Scam of the Week generally runs every Tuesday. Readers are welcome to contact reporter Jake Hutchison to report scams and potential scams they have come in contact with by calling 828-1329 or via email at [email protected].
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