Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge Almost Scammed

Yesterday I had a man call me claiming to be a sheriff with a warrant for my arrest for missing jury duty. I had been summoned for federal grand jury duty and had missed the deadline by 2 weeks. I had set the summons aside and forgotten about it until that call. I called the court and it was fine no warrant and I just have to watch and see if I get called to serve for the rest of the month. This guy had me worried and told me I had to get $1,020 on money cards and give him the numbers as retainer to appear and the warrant would be removed. I went and got the money cards but before I gave out any numbers I had to verify who he was for sure through a 3rd party. I called the district court it was supposed to be through. I called 2 different sheriffs departments as well as the warrants division and had them run me for warrants. No one had heard of this guy and there were no warrants for me processed or not. I went back and forth with this guy for a couple hrs. but I would not send money to anyone I could not verify. I call the court the summons came from this morning and as I said above they had no warrant for me, the lady I spoke with was the woman who would have issued it if there was to be one. This guy tried to dissuade me from going to the sheriffs office by saying he would have to take me into custody if I appeared in person. He even went as far as advising me not to show up with any animals or small children. He had me going, thank God I am smart enough not to give out the card numbers to anyone I couldn't verify. He even tried to say if I gave him the numbers he couldn't get the money just verify it was there as bond. There were many things that sent up red flags that it was BS but I did go as far as getting $1,000 worth of money cards that I cashed back in today. All tolled the lesson cost me $10. So anyone else who gets a similar call beware.

P.S. The manager and teller at my local bank that I am friendly with told me she got caught by the same scam yesterday but wasn't as lucky as I.

If they are Nigerian they are legit

I even said to the guy "How do I know you are not some Nigerian prince?"

Sounds like an inside job... wait for people that "don't show" then call and extort money.

I thought the same thing, who knows?

Well Done Ian.It always pays to check!

Gotta wonder how he got this info. Sounds like a small investigation is needed.

Wow! It pays to be a distrusting old b@stard these days. Why isn't the real sheriff investigating? It's either an inside job or someone is attending every jury selection and recording the names of the no-shows. Either way it should be fairly easy to catch the SOBs.

Probably public records.

So, let me see if I have this correct here, Ian.

You FAILED to answer a summons to appear for possible Grand Jury duty, RIGHT?!

But before I continue here, THE FOLLOWING is how you GET OUT of serving on it:

You tell the presiding judge that you have a problem IN PRINCIPLE with serving on ANY type of "jury" where you basically hear only ONE SIDE of an issue, the prosecution's side, and which is how Grand Juries operate! At least THAT is how I GOT OUT OF serving on a Grand Jury a while back, and WHEN I ANSWERED that same type of summons WHEN I WAS SUPPOSED TO!!!!

And so, once AGAIN we appear to have a situation where the "victim", or at least the POTENTIAL victim is at least PARTIALLY AT FAULT for finding themselves in a bad situation, RIGHT???!!!

(...I gotta admit however that I'm glad you further investigated this thing before spending off your hard earned money, and maybe this little episode will prompt you to remember to answer such future summons on time, EH?!)

I have served before, was just a combination of things going on at home and my putting it off that it slipped my mind.

Yeah, I pretty much figured this resulted from a case of forgetfulness and not from some purposeful intent.

(...I just couldn't resist once again pressing the point, and just as I recently did in a "certain other" forum, that victims very often share some of the blame for their plight, because as you know I DON'T "sugarcoat" ANYTHING when I have somethin' to say!!!)

(because as you know I DON'T "sugarcoat" ANYTHING when I have somethin' to say!!!)

Ya think!


Glad you did not get scammed man regardless. There was a time where we could deal with little Sh*ts like that, now it seems everyone is looking for a new scam...... get a job, be miserable like the rest of us...thats what i say!

Do you have the telephone number he used to make the calls? Pay one of those reverse call services a couple bucks and find out who/where he is and go pay him a visit as a concerned citizen.

Federal marshals have the number too now.I already traced it to mifflinville. We service the state police cars so I know most of them here.