It’s a call that could make anyone panic: Someone on the phone says your loved one is about to be arrested for missing jury duty unless you pay up.
But it’s a scam. Law enforcement will never call you to demand money.
This brazen crime is making a resurgence in the D.C. area, and people are losing thousands of dollars. It recently happened to a Silver Spring, Maryland, family. They shared the experience with the News4 I-Team.
Adam helps care for his father, an Army veteran living with a traumatic brain injury. That injury makes him ineligible to serve as a juror. So Adam was confused when his mom called him one day, panicking and hysterical.
“She just says something about the sheriff and they’re coming to get my dad, and I’m going, ‘Well, he’s sitting on the couch in the living room. What are you talking about?’” Adam said.
Adam asked to remain anonymous because his mom, who retired from a high-ranking government job with the Department of Justice, lost thousands of dollars to a jury duty scam.
“I think for her, the embarrassment is too much to bear,” he said.
Investigations
Investigations by the News4 I-Team
Adam said his mother got a call from someone claiming to be with the Montgomery County Sheriff's Office threatening to arrest her ex-husband for missing jury duty. She asked for proof, and the caller emailed her what appeared to be an arrest warrant. The I-Team confirmed it was fake.
But it looked pretty authentic.
“She just went into, ‘I’m going to protect the family at all cost mode,’” Adam said.
The caller told Adam's mom they’d remove the arrest warrant if she paid the fine — a whopping $88,000. The caller later knocked down the price when she said she didn’t have that kind of money.
She still ended up paying $5,800, but the scammer had another request: He wanted the payment in bitcoin.
“So, this gentleman — my mother knows very little about technology — was able to coach my mother on how to create a bitcoin wallet, because you have to have a wallet to even purchase it,” said Adam.
She then was instructed to go to a nearby Giant grocery store and use a kiosk to convert cash to cryptocurrency. The scammer walked her through how to add the cash to the account and then transfer it to what she thought was the sheriff’s office.
It was only when she showed up in person at the Montgomery County Court House for a bail hearing — as instructed by the caller — that she found out it was a scam. Her money? Gone.
Montgomery County Sheriff Maxwell Uy said although it’s unusual for victims to show up for fake bail hearings, it has happened.
“Not a week goes by that we don’t, we’re not contacted by a potential victim or victim,” Uy said. “One of the best things that our residents can do is if it’s an unfamiliar number, don’t pick up.”
To protect against these types of scams, remember scammers can spoof the caller ID so it looks like the call is coming from a local police department or courthouse.
While there can be consequences for missing jury duty, like fines and even jail time, the sheriff said they’ll never call someone to collect money.
“If for some reason somebody does miss jury duty, I always encourage them to look at the court’s website to get the actual number that they can call in and reach somebody,” Uy said.
Cyber experts say victims of jury duty scams are often immigrants unfamiliar with the court system or senior citizens who are generally more trusting.
Adam has no idea why or how the scammers targeted his mom, but experts say scammers usually obtain personal information from public resources or stolen information now on the dark web.
While he knows she’ll never get her money back, the family felt it was important to share her story to prevent others from becoming victims.
“If I can save one other person from having this happen, because I think, what if this happened to someone who doesn’t have a lot of money? It would be an absolute nightmare,” Adam said. “It would ruin somebody’s life.”
Reported by Susan Hogan, produced by Rick Yarborough, and shot and edited by Jeff Piper.
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