Jury Duty Scams

Have you received a call with someone claiming you missed jury duty and need to pay? Did you receive a text or email following the call that contained official-looking documents saying there’s a warrant out for your arrest? These can sound alarming, but they are not true. This is a scam designed to steal your money.

Most of these “Jury Duty” scams start with someone claiming to be a U.S. Marshal or an officer from your local police department calling on an “URGENT” matter. The caller will try to throw you off guard by mentioning personal information about you that they already know, like your full name and address. They claim you missed jury duty and threaten to arrest you unless you pay a fine (you did not miss jury duty, and they will not arrest you). They will ask you to provide payment using a payment app or with cryptocurrency. Remember that this is a scam!

This tactic for this kind of scam may sound familiar. However, now the threat actors take the scam one step further to convince you that it is real. They will text or email you an official-looking document for the warrant of your arrest. They also list how much you owe for missing jury duty. Again, this makes the scam look more convincing, but it is all fake.

How to know it is a scam:

  • Real law enforcement never text or email arrest warrants to individuals.
  • Even if the call ID says it is your local police department, it is not real. Threat actors spoof numbers every day to make the call look like it is coming from whoever they say they are. Real law enforcement will not call to tell you they are going to arrest you, and they will not threaten to arrest you if you hang up.
  • No government agency or court will demand payment over the phone.
  • Only scammers will say that you can only pay with a payment app, cryptocurrency, gift cards, or a wire transfer service (like Western Union or MoneyGram).

If you get a call like this, tell the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

 

Source: https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2026/06/ignore-calls-texts-and-emails-threatening-arrest-you-missing-jury-duty

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