Woman loses $5,500 in fake jury duty scam

An area woman is out $5500 after a telephone scammer convinced her that she was wanted by police for missing jury duty.

The Johnson County Sheriff’s Department reports that the Bargersville woman came to the county jail after the incident, where she spent nearly three hours on the phone with the caller while she was instructed to buy pre-paid debit cards to settle the supposed fine.

The call appeared to come from the 317 area code and to be from the sheriff’s department based on caller ID information. The caller claimed to be a man name Roy Jenkins from the sheriff’s department. He originally reached the woman at work and talked her into leaving her place of employment to take care of the fake legal issue.

The man also threatened the victim with more serious charges if she talked to anyone else about the situation, if she got off of the telephone or if she went to the sheriff’s department directly to pay the fake fine.

Experts say that a legitimate debt collector or court official will never ask you to purchase pre-paid cards as a way to settle a debt or fine.