By Attorney General McDonnell
Not reporting to jury duty could land you in jail with a $200 fine.
So when folks hear that a judge is mad at them for skipping jury service, it’s understandable they would be scared and want to clear up the situation immediately. Con artists are well aware of this fear and use it to facilitate one of the newest identity theft hoaxes: the jury duty scam.
The scam goes as follows: Someone calls you claiming to be from the court. “Why didn’t you show up for jury duty?” They say they have a warrant for your arrest. You rightfully defend yourself, saying you never received any jury summons. The caller admits that maybe there’s a court mix-up, so please confirm your personal information to make sure they have the right person. Before the victims know it, they’ve given out their social security number and maybe even credit card data. And the con artist is off stealing their money and identity.
Fortunately, Virginia hasn’t yet been hit hard by this scam. This scam is pervasive across much of the nation, and the FBI has issued an alert. Our office has only heard of one instance in Virginia, in Chesapeake. But we want to prevent it before it takes hold.
Sarah Penny, jury coordinator for Hanover County’s circuit court, explained: “We might call someone if they didn’t show up for jury duty, but we wouldn’t ask them for a social security number. And we would not ask them to confirm anything.”
“We may verify their address,” added Maryellen Garcia, the jury coordinator in Spotsylvania County, “but that’s all. We wouldn’t ask for their social security number.”
The courtroom manager for the Fairfax Circuit Court, Jean Hellmandollar, agreed: “We’re not going to say, ‘Why didn’t you show up?’ and ‘Confirm this identifying information.’ In fact anybody in Fairfax who’s been served with a questionnaire and jury summons can go to our website to confirm their jury service via the internet.”
In some localities across Virginia, you wouldn’t get a phone call anyway, but would get correspondence through the mail. According to Chesapeake jury administrator Rannie Brown, “We don’t call. Period.”
So don’t fall for this jury duty scam. Never give out personal information to a stranger. And if you’re scared that you might have fallen prey already, call your local law enforcement immediately, and then contact our office by calling the Consumer Hotline at 800-451-1525 or complete our contact form.
We take consumer protection seriously in our office. No Virginian deserves to be defrauded or conned. By working together, and staying informed, we’ll all be safer.