Beware: Jury Duty Scams Evolve With Deceptive Fake Websites and Digital Tricks

Jury duty is a necessary, if often inconvenient, part of citizen life. If you receive the summons and don’t attend, you can face penalties and, in some cases, hefty fines. Unfortunately, scammers exploit this fear of punishment to twist victims to their own ends.

In this article, we’ll be looking at some of the latest forms of jury duty scams and how to guard against them.

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Introducing the Dodgy Website

It begins with a phone call or email in your inbox. An official name and commanding tone tell you that you’ve missed jury duty (never mind that you didn’t receive a notice) and are facing the prospect of jail time. That is, unless you pay a fine.

You are then directed to a link for your local law enforcement or courts, complete with convincing logos, seals, and even fonts. Once there, you may be required to enter personal information, including your Social Security number, or pay a grossly inflated fine in the thousands of dollars via cryptocurrency or some other untraceable form.

This is the sort of digital and integrated approach scammers are using to phish victims and steal money and valuable information.

Fear Tactics

An effective scam always relies on some form of pressure to coax the victim into deciding quickly and prevent their reasoning abilities to catch up. Often, it’s time, but in many cases, the threat of punishment proves even more effective in prompting a knee-jerk response.

This is what all jury scams are built on, leveraging the victim’s fear of repercussions, which, depending on the state, can be very severe indeed. The most important thing to do when receiving any correspondence asking for money or details, and threatening penalties, is to pause and remember these tips:

Your local law enforcement and government will never ask you to pay in cryptocurrency or via gift cards. This is an untraceable payment, and a big red flag.
Courts and police departments will never ask for sensitive information via email or phone call. Any requests for Social Security numbers, banking details, and pins should be treated with skepticism.
If you have missed jury duty, you will receive an official notice documenting the next steps you should take. This can be confirmed by calling your local court directly.
Any unsolicited contact from “official sources” should be seen as suspicious. While some contacts may be legitimate, there are other ways to confirm.

Staying Safe

There are a few ways to spot the scam and guard against it if it strikes you:

Keep an eye out for the URL on the link you’re directed to. Compare this with the URL of your official local police force or courts. You can also use a link checker for extra confirmation.
Look for spelling and formatting issues on the email you receive (if you do) and the site you’re taken to. This isn’t always a surefire way (some scams are very convincing), but it can be a good first step.
If in doubt, feel free to confirm the matter directly with your local court or law enforcement agency. Don’t call any number or follow any link that the caller gives to you in response to this, but rather contact them via the official number listed on the organization’s website. You can always confirm “threatening action” with them.
If you suspect that you’re being scammed, you can report it directly to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov and don’t interact with the scammer anymore.

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