On Saturday, April 20, 2019, the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department (LASD) was made aware of the telephone call made to County Counsel Mary C. Wickham on her personal cell phone.
Detectives from the LASD Major Crimes Bureau were assigned to this matter and stand ready to launch a full assessment of this potential threat. For several weeks, various stations throughout the County have received reports by residents that they had received similar telephone calls by persons purporting to be members of the Sheriff’s Department and claiming that the person had not appeared for either jury duty or Grand Jury duty.
With some of these calls, the suspects have been able to mask their telephone numbers to appear as if they are calling from within the Sheriff’s Department, in an attempt to appear to be legitimate. At this time, multiple criminal reports have been taken at various stations and are in the early investigative stages.
In an effort to prevent members from our community from falling victim to these fraudulent actors, press releases were sent out to local news media, as well as posted on our numerous social media platforms. On the surface, the incident referred to by Ms. Wickham follows a similar pattern of calls received by others in the area.
The Los Angeles Sheriff’s Department is committed to investigating all incidents of fraud, while we continue to remind our community that law enforcement does not call to intimidate or coerce money for unpaid citations, outstanding warrants, or the failure to attend jury duty. We have and will continue to post public safety announcements alerting our residents to avoid being a victim. Bad actors have been targeting victims across the nation with a large number of telephone scams reporting to be members of law enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service, the court system, or other government agencies. If you receive such a phone call, do not give out any personal, credit card, or banking information – nor should you transfer any funds electronically or through a gift card. If you do become a victim of this scam, contact your local law enforcement agency immediately.
Lieutenant AJ Rotella, Sheriff’s Information Bureau
Previous PSA’s relating to this scam:
Nixle Advisement: http://nixle.us/ATNRA
From LADA public safety message: http://da.lacounty.gov/community/fraud-alerts/jury-fraud
From previous LASD public safety message:
#FraudFriday-Jury Duty Summons
We all receive Jury Duty summons via U.S. mail at some point or another. All jury summons for the County of Los Angeles are mailed via the U.S. postal service. No government office would ever call a resident advising them of a missed jury duty appearance. If you receive a phone call regarding a missed a jury duty appearance date, BEWARE it’s a scam.
This scam may be a bit intimidating because the person on the other end of the call pretends to be a law enforcement representative, when in fact it’s a scammer who will demand payment to stop a warrant from being issued for the missed jury duty.
How this scam works:
• Residents will receive a phone call from an individual claiming to be law enforcement officer (such as a Deputy Sheriff) or court personnel saying they’ve missed jury duty — and inform them they must pay. These scammers may go as far as to identify themselves as the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department or another specific law enforcement agency.
• These criminals request immediate payment to avoid issuing a warrant related to missed Jury Duty. These payments have ranged from a few hundred dollars to thousands of dollars.
• The scammers instruct the victim to make a payment using a pre-paid card such as "Green Dot" typically purchased at your local retail store. The scammer then requests the number on the back of the “Great Dot” card so they can steal the funds from the cards.
If you receive such a phone call, do not give any personal, credit card, or banking information. If you do become a victim of this scam, contact law enforcement immediately.
