‘Jury duty’ scam: How it works and what to watch out for

(NEXSTAR) – Scammers are now leveraging an American civic duty – jury service – to steal your money, local and federal authorities are warning.

“Did you get a call claiming you missed jury duty and need to pay? Followed by a text or email with official-looking documents saying there’s a warrant out for your arrest? As alarming as these things sound, they’re a scam designed to steal your money,” the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) said in a recent news release.

The caller may claim to be a U.S. Marshal or an officer with your city’s police force. The scammer tries to make the call sound as urgent as possible, and may even mention some basic information about the would-be victim, such as a name or address, to sound more legitimate.

To intimidate people into paying a fine for not showing up to the (non-existent) jury selection process, the scammers may threaten to issue an arrest warrant.

“That moment of fear that something terrible had happened was enough to blank my brain,” said one Reddit user, who said his heart........

© The Hill