INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — Deputies are warning residents of a scam where callers pose as detectives and threaten citizens with arrest for not paying a fine for missing jury duty, authorities said.
Sheriff’s officials said they have spoken to several residents who are getting calls and being told “they have missed jury duty and will be arrested if they do not pay a fine.”
The callers pose as detectives or agents with local or federal law enforcement agencies.
Anyone who is being threatened with arrest if they don’t make a payment should know that it’s scam, deputies said. Scammers use a process called spoofing, which allows them to manipulate a persons’ caller ID and make the call appear as if it’s coming from a local number or official government agency.
For the “jury duty” scam, the caller usually demands payment in the form of prepaid credit cards, iTunes cards or some similar manner.
The caller then demands the numbers on the cards. After the money is gone, the forms of payment, along with certain types of wire and bank transfers, are untraceable because the callers use fake accounts and identities, deputies said.
For more information on how to identify this and similar scams, visit the Federal Trade Commission site.
