If you are called by someone who says there is a warrant for your arrest related to missed federal jury duty, do not make any payments to them. Neither the U.S. Marshals Service, nor the U.S. District Court, will ever call to request payment of fines over the phone for failure to appear for jury duty.

The fraudulent caller may identify themselves as an officer with local law enforcement or the U.S. Marshals Service. They will typically instruct you to purchase prepaid debit cards, such as a Green Dot card or gift card, and read the card numbers over the phone to pay your fines in order to avoid arrest.

The caller may use a variety of tactics to sound credible, and may become aggressive or persistent.  They may instruct you to mail the prepaid cards to a specific judge or to report to your local courthouse with the prepaid debit cards.  They may provide information like badge numbers, case numbers, names of actual law enforcement officials, public servants, and federal judges.  They may also spoof their phone numbers to appear on Caller ID as if they are calling from a courthouse or a government agency.

More information about this type of fraudulent activity can be found on our Juror page, the U.S. Courts web page, and Juror Scam Alert.

Also see the KTVQ press release regarding the telephone jury scam in Billings