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The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Indiana is warning residents to beware of a scam where callers are falsely accusing people of failing to appear in court and trying to extract phony fine payments from them.
In a news release Wednesday, the court announced it had received reports of scammers posing as local law enforcement officials and calling individuals – often professionals such as attorneys and health care providers – to accuse them of allegedly failing to appear as an expert witness at a court hearing or trial.
Recipients of such calls are told they have been found in contempt of court and, if they fail to pay a fine, will be arrested, according to the court.
“Using threats and scare tactics, the scammers then entice their victim to pay this ‘fine’ with cash cards or other electronic payment. Making this scam even more nefarious, the scammers spoof government phone numbers and provide their victim with the names of real law enforcement officers, real court officials, and real judges. Even if the names are real, the ‘fine’ is fake,” the court said in its release.
Doria Lynch, the court’s public information officer, said the Southern District has been receiving reports about this sort of scam for years.
Lynch said this new iteration is very similar to previous scams.
“For as long as we’ve been assisting victims of the jury scam, it’s always been someone claiming to be law enforcement, sometimes using signifiers such as a ‘badge number.’ The things that seem to be changing about the scam is that the scammers are using the names of real officials – real judges, real law enforcement. Accusing the victim of having failed to respond to a subpoena as an expert witness is new(er), but otherwise the scam runs the same as the jury scam that we’ve been hearing about (and warning the public about) for years,” Lynch said in an email to Indiana Lawyer.
The court is reminding Southern District residents that real courts and real law enforcement officers will never call someone and demand a payment for any reason and recommend that if they receive such a call, to hang up immediately.
Residents who believe they have been the victim of such a scam are encouraged to report the incident to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (“IC3”) at https://www.ic3.gov, and the Federal Trade Commission at https://reportfraud.ftc.gov/#/.
Additional information about this scam is available on the FTC’s website.
The court included some tips on things to remember and what to do if you are contacted by anyone claiming to be a law enforcement officer or court official:
- Only scammers will call, text, or email demanding that you pay by cash, gift card, cryptocurrency, payment app, or a wire transfer service. No court official or law enforcement officer will ever make such a demand.
- Real law enforcement and real court officials will never demand that you pay fines by phone.
- Real law enforcement and real court officials will never call to say you’re going to be arrested (or threaten to arrest you if you hang up).
- Do not divulge personal information or financial information to unknown callers, including those who claim to work for the government.
- A fine will never be imposed until after an individual has appeared in court and been given the opportunity to explain a failure to appear.
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