Kansas City, Missouri, No Drone Zone sign on the Jackson County Detention Center which houses adult inmates. (Photo by: Michael Siluk/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty Images
Imposter scams have long been among the most lucrative for scammers. According to the FTC, imposter scams cost Americans $2.95 billion, making imposter scams the second most costly scam behind only investment scams. While there are many variations of this scam. The most common variations have involved scammers contacting their victims posing as some governmental agency, such as the IRS, the Social Security Administration or, as often is the case, law enforcement such as the FBI. The scammer then, under a wide variety of pretenses, demands immediate payment or personal information that can lead to identity theft.
Recently Russell Tafron Weatherspoon, was convicted of masterminding a multistate scam between March 2022 and April 2024 in which he and other co-conspirators called targeted victims throughout the country posing as local law enforcement officers using an app that allowed them to spoof the phone numbers of legitimate law enforcement agencies so that their calls would manipulate their targeted victims’ Caller ID to make the calls appear to be actually coming from real law enforcement officers. The scammers told their victims that arrest warrants had been issued for them due to their failure to appear to testify in a court proceeding that they had been subpoenaed to attend. The scammers, conversant with legal terminology, directed their victims to obtain a bond to avoid arrest.
As startling as this may seem, on January 8, 2025 Anthony Sanders, another Georgia inmate and an accomplice were indicted on charges related to a jury duty scam in which Sanders called his victim, a 30 year nurse, posing as a Sarasota, Florida sheriff threatening arrest for failure to show up for jury duty and demanding a payment of more than $12,000 through what he referred to as a “Bonding Transition Center” which was actually a Bitcoin ATM used to direct the funds to Sanders’ account. Again, through spoofing, the call appeared on the victim’s Caller ID as coming from the Sarasota Sheriff’s Department and the victim paid the funds. Prosecutors allege Sanders also used a cell phone smuggled in by a drone to commit the crime.
HOW TO AVOID THESE SCAMS
In regard to Sanders’ scam, initial contacts from courts regarding jury duty are always in writing through the mail although some systems will permit you to receive future notices through email. Under no circumstances will you receive telephone calls or text messages indicating that you have failed to report for jury duty. No court will demand payment over the phone for failing to appear for jury duty and no court ever requires a payment be made via cryptocurrencies. If you do receive such a call and you think that there is even the possibility that you might have forgotten to report for jury duty, merely call the local clerk of courts in order to get accurate information. Of course, anyone calling you and telling you that you can pay your fine over the phone using your credit card or a gift card is a scammer.
As for Weatherspoon’s scam, no legitimate law enforcement agency will call you on the phone and threaten arrest unless a payment is made. Official notices for missing a court appearance would be sent by mail rather than a phone call. In this instance, anyone receiving such a call who might be concerned that the call was legitimate should call the clerk’s office for the court where the trial was alleged to have occurred to confirm that indeed this was a scam.