by Liz Daube
Staff Writer
Prominent members of Jacksonville’s law enforcement and legal communities are spreading the word about a scam that uses jury duty to con people out of private information.
From the Terrell Hogan law firm to the local Fraternal Order of Police, e-mails about the scam started circulating earlier this week. Officials from the Jacksonville Sheriff’s office, the State Attorney’s Office, the Clerk of the Courts office and the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s local office said they had no knowledge of any local incidents involving the scam so far.
Supposedly, con artists throughout the country have been calling strangers and posing as courthouse workers. They claim a warrant has been issued for the person’s arrest for failure to report to jury duty.
When the intended victim argues that they never received a summons, the con artists ask for a Social Security number and date of birth to clear up the issue. In some cases, they say a fine can resolve the problem and ask for a bank account or credit card number. They can use that information to withdraw money or open new lines of credit in the victim’s name, effectively stealing the person’s identity.
Jeff Wescott, a spokesman for the FBI’s Jacksonville field office, said the scam isn’t a new problem, but such crimes – and public concern over them – tend to be difficult to track. Both individuals and organized groups attempt phone scams and they may operate from different states, he said.
“These things just kind of take on a life of their own,” said Wescott. “They come in cycles and waves. It’s kind of like the urban legends that circle on the Internet ... They’ll surface again unpredictably.”
The FBI issued its first warning on the scam in September 2005 and a follow-up in June. Charles Bronson, Florida’s consumer services commissioner, sent word of the fraud problem via a press release in March when the scam had been reported in 11 states, including Illinois. The attorney general’s office there said they have not prosecuted anyone in relation to the scam reports.
Most of the city officials contacted Wednesday were unaware of any jury duty scam.
Jim Fuller, Duval County clerk of court, said his employees would not call a juror who didn’t show up, let alone ask them for personal information.
“We would not call people and tell them. We send them a summons,” said Fuller. “I don’t have time. We send about a thousand (jury duty summons) a week.
“If you have a question, I would hang up and call the clerk’s office. I wouldn’t randomly give my Social Security number to anybody.”
County Court Administrator Britt Beasley said there are typically enough jurors that judges don’t hold those absent in contempt of court.
“It’s a summons just like if you’re a witness,” said Beasley. He said a judge would have to follow specific procedures to hold absent jurors in contempt, so another notice would be mailed to them. At a hearing, Beasley said, the judge would likely arrange another date of service rather than punish them.
If they continually failed to appear, he said, “They could then be held in contempt. In all probability, the sentence would be something like community service.”
Some attorneys have been upset by the way the scam preys on the public’s ignorance of court procedures.
“It’s a nasty scam because people are being intimidated with the threat of arrest,” said Tom Edwards, an attorney who received the e-mail early this week. He is also president of the American Board of Trial Advocates’ local chapter, an organization that aims to preserve the jury system and advance trial lawyers. “They’re using something that is a very important civic and constitutional duty to intimidate people into giving information that can harm them.”