Some New Mexicans have been targeted by what a federal court representative describes as a “sophisticated” telephone scam.
The unlawful aim of the scam is to obtain personal information and payment to stop a warrant from being issued because someone missed jury service.
However, both the warrant and need to report for jury duty are non-existent.
“People just panic,” said Cynthia Gonzales, executive assistant to the Clerk of the U.S. District Court, District of New Mexico. “It’s scary to hear you have a warrant.”
It’s especially frightening for people to go through such an experience “who have never interacted with the court in that way,” Gonzales noted.
And it’s a reason why “jury scams have been around for years,” she said.
It’s unknown exactly how many people were contacted, though several people from around the state contacted the federal district court to report having received these calls.
The scammer alleges to be someone associated with the court, uses the name of an actual court employee and even provides an official-sounding voicemail that’s also fake, Gonzales said.
There have been no reports of this specific type of fraud, in which someone calls and convincingly pretends to represent one of the courts within the state’s Fifth District Court system, said Katie Espinoza, deputy court executive officer…
