CIRCLEVILLE, Ohio — The Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office is warning residents about a wave of scam phone calls after its communications center received an influx of reports Monday from people targeted by callers posing as sheriff’s office personnel.
According to the sheriff’s office, the callers tell victims they missed jury duty and that a warrant has been issued for their arrest. The callers then pressure victims to pay money over the phone to make the warrant go away.
“We never call anyone when they fail to show up for jury duty,” the sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post. “We never call anyone about an arrest warrant. We never take any money over the phone.”
The sheriff’s office urged anyone who receives such a call not to engage with the caller. Residents should simply hang up and, if the call seems suspicious, contact the sheriff’s office directly to verify it.
The tactic mirrors a scam the Federal Trade Commission has tracked nationally for several years. According to FTC consumer alerts, callers claiming to be U.S. marshals or local law enforcement officers tell targets they missed jury duty and face arrest unless they pay a fine immediately, often demanding payment through a payment app, cryptocurrency, gift cards or a wire transfer service. The FTC notes that real law enforcement officers never call to threaten an arrest over missed jury duty, and courts never demand payment by phone. Some scammers have also directed victims to fake websites designed to collect personal information such as a Social Security number.
Similar jury-duty impersonation scams have recently prompted warnings from sheriff’s offices in Vinton and Scioto counties, underscoring how widely the scheme has circulated across the region.
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office.
