KYLE, TX — Kyle police are warning residents of an ongoing scam in which the scammers try to convince their victim that they've failed to report for jury duty.
Cynthia Watts, who lives in a senior-living complex on $750 monthly disability payments, was called by a man claiming to be with the Hays County Sheriff's Office. He demanded she pay $500 in pre-paid gift cards in order to keep out of jail. The phone number even appeared to be from a city or county government office.
"I couldn't believe it. My blood pressure went up. I started shaking. There were people there watching me. I was scared. I didn't know what to do," Watts said, according to KVUE.
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The caller said she had an arrest warrant for missing jury duty. Last year, Watts said she had missed a jury duty because of a death in the family, KVUE reported, so she thought they were referring to that event.
Her options, according to the scammer, were to pay $500 in pre-paid gift cards or go to jail for four weeks. Acting aggressively, they stayed on the phone with Watts while she went around her complex and asked her neighbors.
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Watts eventually ended up able to pay the scammers with help from her neighbors in her complex. She sent the money on two separate days, and when she did, she was told to go to the Sheriff's Office to pick up her paperwork. That's when the actual sheriffs told her she had been scammed.
"People tell me, 'Well, at least you didn't get hurt.' It hurt my heart, it hurt my feelings, it hurt my pocketbook for sure," said Watts, KVUE reported.
"I don’t know how people can do this. I know people are on hard times right now, but scamming poor people for money right at Christmastime, I wouldn't be able to sleep at night knowing I could do that to somebody like that," she said.
A similar scam took place in Hays County earlier this year, according to KVUE.
Another similar scam happened in Elgin, Ill., in which an 18-year-old woman was called saying she would go to jail for missing jury duty if she didn't pay in pre-paid gift cards. While the scammers had her on the phone going all over the place, they called her mother from her number (but not her phone) saying she had been kidnapped and demanded ransom.
Police do not demand money over the phone.
Article image via Shutterstock
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