Bannock County warns of new jury duty phone scam

BANNOCK COUNTY, Idaho (KIFI) – The Bannock County Clerk’s Jury Office has received a number of reports over the past few days of scam callers targeting our area. The suspect callers identify themselves as Bannock County employees.

The context of these calls center around the suspect telling the victim they have a warrant for their arrest due to missing a court date or jury duty. The suspects work to coerce the victim into paying money over the phone with their credit card. Part of the ruse involves the threat of arrest or more criminal charges and consequences.

Bannock County will never initiate a call for a payment or credit card information over the phone to satisfy a judgement, warrant, fine, jury duty or other court issue. Those types of transactions always go through court offices directly and usually require in-person contact at the courthouse.

While county staff does contact our community for a number of legitimate reasons through the course of our job, trying to directly obtain money over the phone for any criminal or civil action will not happen. The biggest tell-tale sign someone posing as law enforcement over the phone is a scam is when you are asked to pay money via a gift card or money transfer credit card to satisfy a fine or to avoid arrest.

If you are unsure the person contacting you is a legitimate county official, you can always contact your local public safety dispatch or court offices to verify. This type of crime is among the wide variety of calls, texts, email and social media scams regularly hitting our area. Be suspicious of strange messages asking you to click links or open websites you are unfamiliar with.

If you have fallen victim to this type of scam and suffered a financial loss, report the incident immediately to your local Law Enforcement and to the federal Internet Crime Complaint Center website.