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Last updated on Tuesday, November 3, 2015
(BLOOMINGTON) - A Bloomington woman fell victim to the jury duty scam with weekend and lost more than $2,000.
According to police the 67-year-old woman received a phone call from someone claiming to be with the Monroe County Sheriff's Department. The caller told the woman she had to pay $1,965, plus an additional $843 processing fee, to avoid being arrested for failing to appear for jury duty.
The woman purchased a PayPal gift card for the first amount, then bought a second prepaid card for the processing fee when the fake officer called back.
The woman gave the card numbers to the caller each time.
The woman then called the number back to verify that the payment had been received and that the warrant would not be issued for her arrest. The call did not connect.
Another version of this scam - the victim will often rightly claim they never received the jury duty notification. The scammer then asks the victim for confidential information for "verification" purposes.
Specifically, the scammer asks for the victim's Social Security number, birth date, and sometimes even for credit card numbers and other private information -- exactly what the scammer needs to commit identity theft.
In reality, court workers or police will never call you to ask for social security numbers and other private information. In fact, most courts and police follow up via mail and rarely, if ever, call prospective jurors.
Police warn to never give out your Social Security number, credit card numbers or other personal confidential information or banking information when you receive a telephone call.
If in doubt, always call police or the courts before sending money or prepaid cards to anyone.
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