READING, Pa. – The Berks County District Attorney\u2019s Office is warning people about a jury duty phone scam.<\/p>\n
People pose as Berks County Sheriff\u2019s deputies or other court officials and falsely claim that the recipient failed to appear for jury duty and that an active arrest warrant has been issued, the DA\u2019s office said in a news release.<\/p>\n
The DA\u2019s office said the caller then demands immediate payment to resolve the alleged warrant and prevent the resident from being taken into custody.<\/p>\n
There is no legitimate warrant or payment requirement, the DA\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
Do not make any payments.<\/p>\n
Immediately hang up and contact the Berks County Sheriff\u2019s Office at (610) 478-6240, the Berks County Detectives at (610) 478-7171, or your local police department, according to the news release.<\/p>\n
The DA\u2019s office said residents should be aware of the following warning signs:<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Legitimate notices concerning jury duty and other court matters are generally sent through official correspondence. Courts and law enforcement agencies will not demand immediate payment over the phone to avoid arrest.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Scammers may demand payment through cryptocurrency or other electronic payment methods. Government agencies do not demand payment through these means, the DA\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Fraudsters often use caller-ID spoofing to make a call appear to originate from an actual government agency, the DA\u2019s office said. If you have concerns about a call, independently obtain the agency\u2019s official telephone number and contact the agency directly to verify the information.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 The DA\u2019s office said scammers may provide convincing-looking documents by email or text message in an attempt to make their claims appear legitimate. Official seals, letterhead, and legal terminology do not establish that the documentation is genuine.<\/p>\n
\u00b7 Scammers frequently use high-pressure tactics designed to create fear and stress. They may insist that you remain on the phone until the matter is \u201cresolved\u201d in an effort to prevent you from independently verifying their claims, according the DA\u2019s office. If you are unsure whether a call is legitimate, hang up and contact the agency directly using a telephone number you have independently verified.<\/p>\n
If you receive a suspicious call of this nature, do not provide personal information, financial information, or payment to the caller. Immediately end the call and contact your local police department, the Berks County District Attorney\u2019s Detective Unit, or the Berks County Sheriff\u2019s Office to report the incident.<\/p>\n
If you believe you have received legitimate court or jury-duty correspondence, contact the appropriate court directly using a verified telephone number, the DA\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"READING, Pa. – The Berks County District Attorney\u2019s Office is warning people about a jury duty phone scam.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":275847,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,43068,10764,128,130,129,14076],"class_list":["post-275846","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-jury-duty-scam","tag-phone-scam","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news","tag-sheriff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275846","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275846"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275846\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275847"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275846"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275846"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275846"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}