To the Editor:
During the last few months, a scam to steal money by telephone has been spreading through many counties in the state of Washington. It is called the “Jury Duty Warrant Scam.”
The usual approach is that the scammer will call the victim, identify him/herself as a law enforcement officer or a court clerk and advise that a court has issued a warrant for his/her arrest because the person failed to appear for jury duty. The caller then goes on to explain that in order to have the warrant lifted, the caller would need to obtain a pre-paid credit card or provide information about their checking account, and then call the “officer” or “clerk” back with the information on the pre-paid credit card or account so that the “officer” or “clerk” can access the account for payment of a fee and lift the warrant.
Your readers should know that no one from law enforcement or any court would ever place such a call and ask for any information in order to resolve a jury warrant. If someone receives such a call, they should call the Sheriff’s office and report it. Jury duty warrants are very rare. In fact, I have never had to issue a jury duty warrant, because we have good citizen responses from those selected for jury duty.
Josh Grant
District Court Judge
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