Federal and D.C. court officials are warning of an identity theft phone scam in which citizens are threatened with prosecution for failing to report for jury service in federal or state courts.
The bogus calls are designed to coerce residents into providing confidential information that can lead to fraud, said Dick Carelli, a spokesman for the federal court system.
“Nobody from the District court should be calling for jury duty,” Carelli said. “That’s all done through the mail.”
This jury duty scam has been around for about a year, said Carelli. He said he wasn’t aware of any arrests being made in connection with the scheme.
The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia has received about 20 calls about the scam in the last year, said Shelly Snook, an aide to Chief Judge Thomas Hogan.
The scam works like this: The caller identifies himself as an officer of the court and says that the resident failed to report for grand jury duty and that a warrant is out for his or her arrest. The caller ID often will display a courthouse number. Residents who get such a call should hang up and call the FBI or the courts, Carelli said.
D.C. Superior Courts spokeswoman Leah Gurowitz said citizens can verify whether they’ve had jury duty by checking the Web site at dccourts.gov/dccourts/superior/index.jsp. They can also call 202-879-4604 or 202-879-1604.
For the District of Columbia District Court main office call 202-354-3000; for Virginia Eastern District Court, 703-299-2100; Maryland District Court Greenbelt Divisional Office, 301-344-0660.
