MEMPHIS, Tennessee — The Shelby County Sheriff’s Office is warning about a jury duty scam after numerous complaints from the public.
This isn’t the first time it’s happened in the area either.
If you get a call on your phone and someone’s inquiring about your financial information, be wary.
“People would call up people just randomly and they would say you have jury duty but in order for you to make sure there’s not a warrant out for your arrest or to serve on jury duty we need your social security number,” said SCSO Public Information Officer John Morris.
The office also warns that no one from the Jury Commission will instruct you to buy a pre-paid gift card to have warrants removed for failure to appear for jury service.
“People like to prey on the weak and the elderly and whoever trying to get financial information or social security numbers so they can do unscrupulous things,” Morris said.
The sheriff’s office said this scam popped up earlier in the spring and is now back.
“With cell phones, you get a lot of calls from different people,” said Morris. “If you don’t recognize the phone number most people don’t answer or let it go to voicemail. If it’s important enough someone will call back.”
Authorities stressed the importance of staying vigilant especially during this time of year.
“Now that we’re coming up to the Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday season there will be more and more of these scam artists out there,” commented Morris.
If you get a call from someone you think is falsely claiming to be from the Shelby County Jury Commission call law enforcement of the Jury Commission directly at 901-222-1650.