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Jury Duty Phone Scam Making The Rounds Again In Guilford Co.

If someone calls you from a sheriff's department saying you owe money and you have warrants out for your arrest for missing jury duty-- it's a scam.

GREENSBORO, N.C.-- An old phone scam is making the rounds again.

There are people posing as Guilford County Employees saying that there are warrants out for your arrest for missing jury duty. If you don't pay the fine, you could be arrested.

Colonel Randy Powers with the Guilford County Sheriff's Office says this is a scam.

It happens all the time all over the country.

"We actually had a medical doctor common into our office who lives in the city of Greensboro recently who had received a call," Powers said.

The sheriff's office will never call you demanding payments.

Two of the most common methods of payments scammers request is a Money Order or the information off a prepaid debit card.

"Once it's transferred you can't get it back and it's not traceable." Powers explained.

Just this week a person posted the the Nextdoor App after receiving the scam call to warn others.

(Source: Nextdoor App)

A woman read the post and said her daughter was scammed out of $2,000.

The calls can be convincing. Colonel Powers says the criminals can spoof a number so it looks like its coming from a real source. The scammer can also pretend to be a legitimate employee, with a simple search on Google.

"They have even called me and said they were with the sheriff's office and they gave me a deputy's name. And I said well, that's interesting, because I'm your boss and if you're trying to serve a paper on me why don't you just come straight to my office and of course that ends the call real quick." Powers said.

If you get a suspicious call, don't believe them, don't send them any money, and hang up.

Anytime you get a suspicious call from someone or a business asking for money, call the business back directly to verify. More often than not, you can figure out right away that it's a scam.

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