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A jury duty scam is an impersonation attempt in which someone falsely claims you missed jury service and must pay a fine or provide personal information to avoid arrest. The contact may pretend to come from a court, police department, sheriff, or federal law-enforcement agency. Do not pay or share information; verify any real jury-service concern by contacting the court through contact details you find independently.
How does a jury duty scam work?
A scammer often calls with an urgent claim that you failed to appear for jury duty and now face a warrant, fine, arrest, or jail. The person may pose as a court official, police officer, sheriff, judge, or U.S. Marshal. They may know details such as your name or address, and caller ID may be spoofed to look as if the call comes from law enforcement. Neither detail establishes that the contact is genuine. The FTC describes these tactics in its June 2026 alert.
The approach is not limited to phone calls. Messages may arrive by text or email with a fake arrest-warrant document, or send you to a government-looking website asking for information or money. A badge number, case number, official-looking seal, document, or web address can be fabricated. The FTC has also warned about fake jury websites that request details such as your date of birth or Social Security number in its August 2025 alert.
What are the warning signs?
- Urgent threats: The caller says you must act now or be arrested, jailed, or otherwise punished for missing jury service.
- Payment demands: They ask for money over the phone or demand gift cards, cryptocurrency, a payment app transfer, a wire transfer, prepaid debit cards, cash, or a deposit at a cryptocurrency kiosk. The FTC says, “Courts never demand payment over the phone.”
- Requests for sensitive information: They ask for bank or credit-card details, your Social Security number, birth date, or other personal information.
- Pressure to trust the contact itself: They point to caller ID, a badge or case number, a warrant-looking document, or a supplied website as proof. Those items are not independent verification.
In its June 2026 alert, the FTC states: “Real law enforcement will never text or email you an arrest warrant.”
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How can you check whether a jury-duty notice is real?
Use a contact route you locate independently. Find your court’s official website or use a telephone number printed on a summons or other court material you have already verified. Ask the court’s jury office or clerk whether you have a real jury-service obligation. Do not call a number, open a link, or follow payment instructions supplied in the suspicious contact. Jury-service procedures differ by jurisdiction, so the court is the right place to confirm a specific concern.
Caller ID and contact details supplied by the caller are not independent checks: scammers can spoof numbers and create convincing documents or websites. California’s Judicial Branch likewise warns the public about jury scams and recommends contacting the local jury office for suspicious requests in its Jury Scam Alert.
What should you do if you receive a scam contact?
- Do not pay or disclose information. Do not buy or send a gift card, transfer money, scan a payment code, provide financial details, or share sensitive personal information.
- End the contact. Hang up or stop replying. Do not use the caller’s phone number, link, or payment instructions.
- Verify separately if you are concerned. Contact the court’s jury office or clerk using an official number or website you found independently.
- Report the attempt. Submit a report to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. California’s Judicial Branch also advises contacting local police and the local jury office about suspicious requests.
What if you already paid or shared information?
Contact the payment provider or financial institution promptly and explain what happened; ask what steps are available for the specific payment method. Then follow the FTC’s guidance for people who have been scammed at What To Do If You Were Scammed. Whether a payment can be stopped or recovered depends on the circumstances, so recovery is not guaranteed. If you shared sensitive information, tell the relevant financial institution and follow its advice about securing affected accounts.
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