Residents of the Northern District of Georgia continue to receive fraudulent phone calls claiming that the victim failed to appear for jury duty in federal court and/or has an arrest warrant or similar adverse situation. The scammer tells the victim that he or she can avoid arrest or other negative consequences by making a payment, which may include purchasing a pre-paid card—such as a Green Dot card or gift card—and then giving the card number to the scammer.

The scammer may sound convincing and use real information about the victim; real court addresses; and real names of law enforcement officers, court officials, and federal judges to make the scam appear more credible. Scammers may even “spoof” the phone number on caller ID so that the call falsely appears to be from a court number (such as 404-215-1600) or the number of another government agency.

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