Full Notification

The Sheriff’s Office is receiving calls from area residents regarding a jury duty scam, so Sheriff Mark Bowen is once again reminding area residents of the pervasive telephone scam that leaves victims open to theft and identity theft. The jury duty scam, along with the IRS scam, tax warrant scam, relative in need scam, home improvement scam, and others, come and go in cycles but all require potential victims to be aware of the issues. Most recently, the jury duty scam has once again come to the forefront.

The jury duty scam work like this:

The scammer calls claiming to work for the local court or the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office and informs the victim of a failure to report for jury duty. The victim is told that an arrest warrant has been issued for failure to report for jury duty. The victim will rightly claim that a jury duty notification was never received. The scammer will then pressure the victim into sending money by prepaid credit card or wire transfer to take care of the warrant or ask the victim for confidential information to “verify” the warrant. Caller ID may show the call originating from an official number and the scammer may provide a callback number.

Arrest warrants in Hamilton County are never served by telephone nor is notification of an arrest warrant made by phone. To verify an active warrant, call 317-776-9800 or ask for the specific court in which jury duty was missed and call the court directly. Do not assume Caller ID or a callback number are legitimate. Scammers may also use names of local law enforcement officers or court officials to make the call seem more realistic. Do not be tempted to give out private information such as date of birth, social security number, or credit card numbers over the phone. Never be pressured into making a hasty decision over the telephone and always think twice before sending money by prepaid card or wire transfer. Transactions like these are nearly impossible to trace once sent.

The current round of the jury duty scam uses the names of either Deputy Farley or Sgt. Sellers. Caller ID shows a variety of phone numbers, none of which correspond to either a Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office number or a Hamilton County Courthouse number.

Anyone receiving a potential scam call may contact Hamilton County Communications at 317-773-1282 to be connected to the appropriate law enforcement agency.