Jury Duty Scam Resurfaces In Fulton County

ATLANTA, GA -- The Fulton County Sheriff’s Office is seeing a new twist on an old telephone scam. This latest reiteration involves scam artists typically targeting citizens who want to do the right thing, the agency said.

The bad guys will call residents on the telephone falsely claiming to be a Fulton sheriff's deputy. The scammer tells the resident there is a warrant for his or her's arrest for missing jury duty and to avoid going to jail, the citizen must pay up. Often, the fake deputy will insist the citizen pay via a reloadable credit card. That is a scam, as a real deputy will never call a citizen on the phone asking for money.

"A deputy will not shake you down for money," the agency added. "If you receive one of these phone calls, then please contact local investigators to report it immediately."

There are reports of this type of scam dating as far back as 2005. The older version of the scam involved perpetrators calling victims pretending to be a deputy sheriff or court administration employee (court clerk, jury coordinator). The fake employee then tells the victim they missed jury duty and as a result there is an arrest warrant for him or her. The fraudster asks for personally identifiable information such as a social security number and date of birth from the victim to verify the information in the victim’s file and remove the arrest warrant from the system. This early version of the scam was intended to steal the victim’s identity.

The scam soon evolved to the fake employee demanding money from the victims by telling them they could avoid being arrested by paying the associated fines over the telephone by purchasing a reloadable credit/debit card (usually Green Dot Card, Netspend Prepaid Debit Card, Vanilla Reload Card and others) and giving the PIN to the fake court employee (SIGN UP: Get Patch's Daily Newsletter and Real Time News Alerts. Or, if you have an iPhone, download the free Patch app).

In the updated version of the scam, the perpetrators initiate the scam by calling the homes of citizens and asking for the target by name. The newest trend usually targets married couples and the perpetrators usually indicate the warrant is for the wife. The perpetrator then introduces himself as a Fulton County deputy sheriff and advises that there is an active arrest warrant for the citizen for missing jury duty.

The law enforcement impersonator will sometimes go as far as providing a date, time, judge’s name, courtroom number and location where the jury duty was supposedly missed.

"One victim even reported hearing what sounded like police radios and other telephone calls occurring in the background during the conversations with the law enforcement impersonators," the sheriff's office said.

The perpetrator provides a way for the victim to avoid being arrested for missing jury duty. The impersonator tells the victim to buy a reloadable credit/debit card, (typically a Green Dot Card, Netspend Prepaid Debit Card, Vanilla Reload Card and others) and provides the amount of money that should be loaded onto the reloadable cards as fine payments.

The perpetrators either call the victims back or provide a number in which the victim can call the perpetrators back once they have purchased the reloadable cards. The perpetrators typically use prepaid mobile telephones in an attempt to avoid detection. The victims are asked to provide the PIN’s for the reloadable cards and the perpetrators quickly take the money from the victim’s reloadable card.

Another metro Atlanta law enforcement agency has reported one more new twist to the jury scam fraud. Perpetrators there have enhanced the scam by spoofing the telephone number of the agency in the initial call to the victims in that jurisdiction. When the victim receives the call, the caller ID shows the number of the law enforcement agency.

This scam is one that is not new. It has become a nation-wide scam with reports from the west coast to the east coast. It started as a scam to steal victim’s identities, but has evolved to bad guys who now impersonate police officers to intimidate and steal money from victims. It is believed these fraudsters work different jurisdictions throughout the state of Georgia including right here in Fulton County.

For more information, you can reach the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office at 404-612-5100.

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