Beware of a New Jury Duty Scam that has Stolen $5,000 From a Texas Woman

Thieves are alive and well in Texas. These thieves don't always have to be breaking into your home or car either. Some thieves like to be tricky and offer a great deal or a nice gift disguised as coming from a legitimate company to steal your personal information. Other thieves will call you out of the blue and use scare tactics, like being arrested, if you don't pay a fine. That's exactly what's happening right now with a scam going around Texas that cost a Lufkin woman $5,000.

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Thieves are the Lowest of the Low

I'm am not sorry for saying this, if you're a thief, you are lower than the scum in a sewer drain. There is no excuse for taking something from someone that isn't yours or from a store that you don't pay for. That's why it's so maddening to hear about someone who is targeting Texans by phone using missed jury duty to steal money from someone. In East Texas, we have a high respect for anyone in law enforcement or for the judicial process in general. That is most likely why these scammers use this trick to steal.

Lufkin Woman Falls Victim

A Lufkin woman got a call from a 936 area code saying she had a warrant for her arrest for missing jury duty. Yes, you can be issued a fine and/or arrested for missing jury duty. However, as any local law enforcement will say, they will never call a person and ask for a fine to be paid using Bitcoin as was demanded of this Lufkin woman (CBS 19).

Money Lost in the Scam

The scam caller did have some personal information of this woman so she believed this to be a real thing so she paid $3,600 for the warrant and a $1,400 "first-time offender fee." It was shortly afterwards that she realized it was a scam and contacted her bank presumably to cancel the payment that was made.

If you receive a call like this, just hang up and call local authorities to let them know what happened so they can possibly spread the word of the scam so no one falls victim.