206-990-2113
770-273-2480 (Venmo link, a part of this scam operation)
You receive a call from someone claiming to work for a Sheriff Office. They will leave a name that turns out to be a real name for your local police but the person you are talking to is not him!
I noticed that the voicemail I received that started out this scam had a lot of background noise. The “sheriff” sounded like he could barely breathe and stumbling over his words a bit. When I called back a couple days later, it went to his voicemail and again there was a poorly made voicemail greeting with difficult breathing and a long silence at the end before the beep. So far it all seems very unprofessional but who knows, I don’t often talk to the police.
They will call you back late in the evening because they are not actually police officers. They are scammers who work all night long to steal from people.
The general idea is they tell you that you have two citations for failure to appear in court for Jury Duty. He’ll ask you to write down these citation numbers which seems legit but this is part of them trying to convince you this is real. After you wrote it down, he will bring someone else onto the line. This is a common way of social engineering to make you think this ordeal is legit.
The second person will tell you that you can either go to jail for 24 hours to resolve this or resolve through a civil manner which means to simply appear before a judge and tell them that you did not receive the notice of jury duty. I think everyone will opt for the civil resolve as so far there is not much reason to believe that this is fraud.
After a while they start to talk about bonds. I had no idea what this was but they say it is fully refundable after you appear in court. Then you get a VENMO link from some other number while you’re talking. Now I’m suspicious. I asked if I could pay in person and they said yes…
I then asked for the address and he did not immediately know the address. He got an address for me and said I would need to appear TONIGHT to pay. The call is taking place at 7:30pm so he wants me to drive to a dark street in downtown Seattle by 8:30pm. He also says I must remain on the call the entire time I drive to the address. Now the part that sealed the deal…
I was only starting to be suspicious when I saw the VENMO link but I asked what payment method they accept in person. He asked me to bring $5000 CASH in a white envelope.
LOL
206-990-2113
770-273-2480 (Venmo link, a part of this scam operation)
If you were spoken to by this same group or if you got scammed and would like to add their phone numbers to help other out, please do so. Look up my website on Facebook and place a comment. I’ll add the additional phone numbers that they start using to help others who may search the internet to find out if these calls are legit.
https://www.courts.wa.gov/newsinfo/index.cfm?fa=newsinfo.displayContent&theFile=content/scamAlert
https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2024/09/did-you-get-call-or-email-saying-you-missed-jury-duty-and-need-pay-its-scam