(Woodland, CA) August 30, 2017 – Yolo County District Attorney Jeff Reisig is warning residents to be aware of fraudulent telephone calls from people posing as law enforcement or the Yolo County Superior Court claiming that you missed your jury duty summons. In the current scheme, the scammers’ claim that an arrest warrant has been issued by local law enforcement for missing a jury duty summons, and that you will be arrested unless you immediately pay a fine. The caller sounds very official and has even falsely represented himself as a Yolo County Sheriff’s Deputy.
The Yolo County Sheriff’s Office stated that multiple citizens have been receiving phone calls from individuals who are representing themselves as Sheriff’s Office employees. In the past community members have sent money to these anonymous scammers and recovering these funds has proven very difficult.
The official sounding “Jury Summons Warrant” is designed to frighten recipients into responding quickly when they are upset and not thinking clearly. As with most scams, the con artists are either trying to scare the victim into “wiring” money or going out to purchase prepaid cards to transfer the money. These scammers are also trying to obtain personal information like a Social Security or Credit Card number.
The Yolo County Superior Courts will always notify citizens by US mail of any violations they might have regarding their jury summons. The Courts do not issue bench warrants for failure to appear for a jury summons.
The Yolo County Sheriff’s Office declared that they will never call and request personal or financial information, request payment for any warrants or missed jury duty summons. Sheriff’s Deputies will never make phone calls demanding such information.
According to District Attorney Reisig, “The complexity and frequency of these types of scams has been increasing dramatically over the last several months. Nobody is immune from being targeted by these persistent crooks. The best defense against becoming a victim of scams such as this is knowledge and vigilance.”
As a reminder, never provide personal information to anyone over the phone or wire money to an unknown person. If you receive a suspicious phone call please contact the Yolo County District Attorney’s Fraud Hotline at 855-4-YOLO-DA or your local law enforcement agency in the case of an emergency. Reports of suspected fraud can also be made online at www.yoloda.org/fraud.htm or emailed to Fraud@yoloda.org.
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