JEFFERSON COUNTY, AR – Thelma Collins answers her phone with caution.
So when a man called her house asking to speak with her husband she wanted to know why.
“I like to check things out before I give out any money. I want to know what’s going on,” says Collins.
Collins says her daughter picked up the phone then passed it to her.
She says when she got on the phone with the man, he told her he could not tell her why he was calling and that he needed to speak with her husband directly.
“I started to wonder what was going on,” says Collins.
Police say the man identified himself as “Sergeant Harper” and “Corporal Edwards” with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
They say the man called about 11 people in the county telling them they have warrants for failing to appear for jury duty.
“The target is the older generation older people who may not ask those questions or are afraid they are in trouble,” says Major Lafayette Woods.
Major Woods with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office says it’s a scam.
“Scammers have all day to think about new scams and if we don’t know about it we can’ t make the public aware of it.”
The scammers will tell you to pay off your warrant with a pre-paid credit card and give them the card number over the phone, something Woods says law enforcement never does.
“You don’t listen to what somebody tells you, you go to the bottom of it and you get to the source.”
That’s why the scammer couldn’t take advantage of Collins and her husband.
So when a man called her house asking to speak with her husband she wanted to know why.
“I like to check things out before I give out any money. I want to know what’s going on,” says Collins.
Collins says her daughter picked up the phone then passed it to her.
She says when she got on the phone with the man, he told her he could not tell her why he was calling and that he needed to speak with her husband directly.
“I started to wonder what was going on,” says Collins.
Police say the man identified himself as “Sergeant Harper” and “Corporal Edwards” with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office.
They say the man called about 11 people in the county telling them they have warrants for failing to appear for jury duty.
“The target is the older generation older people who may not ask those questions or are afraid they are in trouble,” says Major Lafayette Woods.
Major Woods with the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office says it’s a scam.
“Scammers have all day to think about new scams and if we don’t know about it we can’ t make the public aware of it.”
The scammers will tell you to pay off your warrant with a pre-paid credit card and give them the card number over the phone, something Woods says law enforcement never does.
“You don’t listen to what somebody tells you, you go to the bottom of it and you get to the source.”
That’s why the scammer couldn’t take advantage of Collins and her husband.
