MIAMI-DADE COUNTY, Fla. – A jury duty scam is currently circulating in Miami-Dade County, and officials say the concern over these scams has become a growing concern not only here in South Florida but nationwide.
So much so that a press conference was held Thursday morning to alert South Floridians of these highly sophisticated scams.
First off, what was stressed during the press conference is that the county will never harass or threaten you over jury duty and you certainly will not be required to make a payment if you miss jury duty.
Officials say Miami has been seeing an alarming amount of jury duty scams as of late that are currently under investigation.
While the county could not go into specifics in terms of the cases or how may cases there are, they did say that one case is too many.
“These instances are looking pretty sophisticated, and I think we all know the emails we are all getting out there and the phone calls are becoming more and more sophisticated,” said Miami-Dade Courts Chief Judge Nushin G. Sayfie. “Just because it looks legit does not mean it is legit, and I think that is what I want the public to go away with. We are not going to ask you for money in a phone call, we are not going to ask you for money related to your jury duty, so they really should not be calling for any of that, even if it looks legit.”
So remember, if you receive a jury duty summons, you will receive it from the Clerk of Court with all the information you need to know in terms of where to report, what time, and what to do if you have a conflict and can’t show up.
All of that will be on the card sent to you and there will be no calls to you and no payment requested.
If you believe you are being scammed, reach out to miamidadeclerk.gov or call 786-828-5879.