New jury scam has officials on statewide alert

TAMPA - There is a new scam out there that has state officials sounding the alarm. The scammer poses as a law enforcement officer and claims the victim is about to be arrested for not appearing for jury duty but can avoid it by paying a fine. 

Hillsborough Clerk of Court and Comptroller Cindy Stuart says her office recently put out a statewide alert to clerks' offices after she started getting calls from worried residents. She says the caller is aggressive and persistent on the phone and often comes well prepared, "The scammer seems to have a lot of information on people when they make calls like date of birth, name of the judge that are potentially asking for this information," explains Stuart. 

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The clerk's office mails 3,000 jury summons a month to residence and says if you can’t make it there’s an easy process to notify the clerk's office, but Stuart says don’t expect a call from her office, "We would never authorize anyone to call you about reporting and the sheriff's office certainly would not be the ones calling you if you did not report for jury duty," she explained. 

If you get one of the scam calls, you are urged to call authorities right away and report it.