NJ sheriff issues alert after victim sent ‘jury duty’ scammers $1250

Authorities along the Jersey Shore are alerting residents about yet another scam that's making its rounds and this one involves you allegedly missing jury duty.

Jury duty phone scam in Ocean County, NJ

The Ocean County Sheriff's Office says scammers are calling people and telling them they missed their appointment for jury duty service and a warrant or citation has been issued in their name.

Per a Facebook post from this past Wednesday,

Earlier yesterday a woman residing in Point Pleasant received a call from a male impersonating himself as a representative from our agency reporting that money was owed for failing to appear for Jury Duty. The victim sent $1,250 to the caller. At no time does our agency ever solicit over the phone for any matter.

Scammers have been going to great lengths recently to trick people, including sharing personal information with potential victims, such as previous addresses or phone numbers, in an attempt to sound like a legitimate law enforcement agency; such information can be found relatively easily online.

If you receive such a call, immediately hang up and you can report it to the Ocean County Sheriff's Office by calling (732) 929-2044.

Authorities are quick to point out that if a warrant were issued for your arrest, officers would just come and get you -- they wouldn't give you a courtesy phone call.

Don't be the next victim

As always, never provide any financial information over the phone.

If someone purporting to be a law enforcement officer or agent asks for a credit card or bank account number over the phone, asks you to buy gift cards, or asks you to make an electronic payment at a store like Family Dollar or Walgreens, it's a scam.