Wisconsin's Weekend Morning News
DATCP - Fake Jury Duty Notices
Oh Michelle it seems like a lot of people want to try to avoid jury duty but it is our civic duty and for those of us who feel it's necessary we still have to watch out because there are some fake jury duty notices out there what are you hearing at the offices of that gap? Well this is one of those scams that we hear about from time to time and it's popping up again and we know missing jury duty can come with real consequences you can face a fine be required to go to court or even get arrested so scammers take advantage of this and use those scare tactics to try and get your money and sensitive information. A jury duty scam usually starts with a phone call or an email from someone claiming to be a court official or someone from law enforcement and then they say you miss jury duty even though you never got that written jury notice and now there's a warrant out for your arrest and the only way to cancel that warrant is to pay a fine and confirm your identity and provide your personal information like a social security number or your date of birth and then if you refuse they threaten you with jail to make that scam seem even more legitimate the scammers might give you a fake badge number and a case number and all this can be very scary for a consumer so if you have that notice if that notification comes to you what should you do to find out if it's actually legitimate well if you think an email or a notification is real call the court directly at the number that you can verify is correct never use the contact information in any suspicious messages that you receive and keep in mind a real jury summons is sent by us mail before you're required to appear for jury selection and if you miss jury duty you'll be contacted by the court now each municipality does that follow up contact differently so there isn't that very specific way in which it happens throughout our state however you can always contact your local municipality to inquire if you have missed jury duty and how you proceed from there but don't just respond by making a payment or handing over your personal information to some phone call that comes out of the blue and finally Michelle if you think you are being scammed who should we call please call Wisconsin's consumer protection here at that cap 1-800-422-7128