A Southeast Texas businesswoman is telling how she was scammed out of $1,000 in hopes to save others from the same.
Cheryl Underhill feels psychologically and financially violated after becoming a victim of a jury duty scam.
The scam involves a caller pretending to be law enforcement and claims the victim missed a jury summons and needs to pay citations or be arrested. To keep from going to jail, the victim is told to pay a fine with gift cards.
The jury duty scam is starting to appear more frequently across the state and beyond.
Underhill is a licensed professional counselor who holds a master’s degree. She’s familiar with scams that come and go but when she received a call last week from a man claiming to be Deputy Marshal John Garrison with a called ID showing USA GOV, she took note.
The local woman was returning from a beach trip and had two friends in the car with her when the call came in. The male caller said she signed a grand jury duty summons saying she would appear in court but did not appear — and now there were two warrants for her arrest then hung up.
Panicking, Underhill had one of her friends with her call the number back and eventually reached the caller who would only speak with Underhill.
Worried about the warrants, she called the man and was told to resolve the matter she needed to pay $1,500.
“He said, ‘Ms. Underhill, I want to help you take care of this’ and he’s still got this attitude and is pressuring. He said…
