{"id":135882,"date":"2025-10-27T07:52:22","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T15:52:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/27\/my-experience-with-fake-jury-duty-fine-scammers\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T07:52:22","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T15:52:22","slug":"my-experience-with-fake-jury-duty-fine-scammers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/2025\/10\/27\/my-experience-with-fake-jury-duty-fine-scammers\/","title":{"rendered":"My Experience With Fake Jury Duty Fine Scammers"},"content":{"rendered":"
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<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As detailed in a previous article, lawyers are often the target of scams<\/a> since attorneys sometimes hold significant sums of money on behalf of clients.\u00a0However, sometimes having a legal background can make it easier to debunk a scam in progress and make it less likely for someone to be a victim because lawyers have an increased understanding of how the legal system works.<\/p>\n

Several months ago, I received a phone call from a number local to my area of New Jersey.\u00a0The individual on the phone spoke with an authoritative voice and said he was with the Bergen County Sheriff\u2019s Office.\u00a0The caller then gave me a long case number and told me to write this number down. As he said the case number, I did not even bother writing it down since I already suspected this might be a scam call.\u00a0(I once read an article about how scammers operate and know they sometimes try to increase their legitimacy with such numbers.)<\/p>\n

The caller said he was pursuing a case against me for allegedly not appearing for jury duty even though I had been lawfully summoned for jury service. I politely told the caller that I had not lived in Bergen County for 13 years so I was not lawfully required to serve jury duty there. As a result, I did not know why this individual was harassing me.\u00a0This threw the scammer off, and he fumbled for what to say next.<\/p>\n

The scammer then conveyed that he was actually calling about a federal summons, so even though I lived in a different county, I was still on the hook for an unanswered federal jury summons.\u00a0I then asked why the Bergen County Sheriff\u2019s Office would be calling me about an alleged federal jury summons.\u00a0The person on the other line said that the Bergen County Sheriff\u2019s Office did indeed have authority over this issue. I then asked wouldn\u2019t the U.S. Marshals Service or some other federal court agency have jurisdiction over this issue?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The scammer insisted that his supposed agency had authority, and I asked whether having a county sheriff\u2019s office enforce federal jury summonses violate the commandeering doctrine or federalism?\u00a0Again, I have not really thought through these issues, but I wanted to see if I could shake the scammer\u2019s confidence, and it seemed to work.\u00a0I also remembered from reading an Above the Law article that federal courts will frequently issue orders to show cause by mail to people who do not respond to jury summonses. Again, I have no idea if this is done in my state, but getting something in the mail seemed more appropriate, and the scammer had no response to this line of questioning.<\/p>\n

I ended the call with the scammer telling me that I could be arrested for not responding, to which I replied \u201cI look forward to it\u201d or something similar.\u00a0I looked through all kinds of court records and could find no evidence that any case had been opened against me for allegedly failing to appear for a jury summons.\u00a0After some brief internet searching, I discovered that the fake jury service fine scam is a common one, and many people just pay the supposed fine since it is not too large and they want to play it safe in case the scam is true.<\/p>\n

In any event, everyone needs to be careful of scammers who deploy a variety of tactics to pilfer money from victims.\u00a0But sometimes, being a lawyer can make someone less susceptible to falling prey to scams.<\/p>\n

\n

Jordan Rothman is a partner of\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>The Rothman Law Firm<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Student Debt Diaries<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>jordan@rothm<\/em><\/strong><\/a>an.law<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post My Experience With Fake Jury Duty Fine Scammers<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"
<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As detailed in a previous article, lawyers are often the target of scams<\/a> since attorneys sometimes hold significant sums of money on behalf of clients.\u00a0However, sometimes having a legal background can make it easier to debunk a scam in progress and make it less likely for someone to be a victim because lawyers have an increased understanding of how the legal system works.<\/p>\n

Several months ago, I received a phone call from a number local to my area of New Jersey.\u00a0The individual on the phone spoke with an authoritative voice and said he was with the Bergen County Sheriff\u2019s Office.\u00a0The caller then gave me a long case number and told me to write this number down. As he said the case number, I did not even bother writing it down since I already suspected this might be a scam call.\u00a0(I once read an article about how scammers operate and know they sometimes try to increase their legitimacy with such numbers.)<\/p>\n

The caller said he was pursuing a case against me for allegedly not appearing for jury duty even though I had been lawfully summoned for jury service. I politely told the caller that I had not lived in Bergen County for 13 years so I was not lawfully required to serve jury duty there. As a result, I did not know why this individual was harassing me.\u00a0This threw the scammer off, and he fumbled for what to say next.<\/p>\n

The scammer then conveyed that he was actually calling about a federal summons, so even though I lived in a different county, I was still on the hook for an unanswered federal jury summons.\u00a0I then asked why the Bergen County Sheriff\u2019s Office would be calling me about an alleged federal jury summons.\u00a0The person on the other line said that the Bergen County Sheriff\u2019s Office did indeed have authority over this issue. I then asked wouldn\u2019t the U.S. Marshals Service or some other federal court agency have jurisdiction over this issue?\u00a0<\/p>\n

The scammer insisted that his supposed agency had authority, and I asked whether having a county sheriff\u2019s office enforce federal jury summonses violate the commandeering doctrine or federalism?\u00a0Again, I have not really thought through these issues, but I wanted to see if I could shake the scammer\u2019s confidence, and it seemed to work.\u00a0I also remembered from reading an Above the Law article that federal courts will frequently issue orders to show cause by mail to people who do not respond to jury summonses. Again, I have no idea if this is done in my state, but getting something in the mail seemed more appropriate, and the scammer had no response to this line of questioning.<\/p>\n

I ended the call with the scammer telling me that I could be arrested for not responding, to which I replied \u201cI look forward to it\u201d or something similar.\u00a0I looked through all kinds of court records and could find no evidence that any case had been opened against me for allegedly failing to appear for a jury summons.\u00a0After some brief internet searching, I discovered that the fake jury service fine scam is a common one, and many people just pay the supposed fine since it is not too large and they want to play it safe in case the scam is true.<\/p>\n

In any event, everyone needs to be careful of scammers who deploy a variety of tactics to pilfer money from victims.\u00a0But sometimes, being a lawyer can make someone less susceptible to falling prey to scams.<\/p>\n

\n

Jordan Rothman is a partner of\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>The Rothman Law Firm<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, a full-service New York and New Jersey law firm. He is also the founder of\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>Student Debt Diaries<\/em><\/strong><\/a>, a website discussing how he paid off his student loans. You can reach Jordan through email at\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>jordan@rothm<\/em><\/strong><\/a>an.law<\/em><\/strong><\/a>.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

The post My Experience With Fake Jury Duty Fine Scammers<\/a> appeared first on Above the Law<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As detailed in a previous article, lawyers are often the target of scams since attorneys sometimes hold significant sums of money on behalf of clients.\u00a0However, sometimes having a legal background can make it easier to debunk a scam in progress and make it less likely for someone to be a victim because lawyers have an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":135819,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-135882","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-above_the_law"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/xira.com\/p\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/jury-trial-jury-duty-trials-technology-screens-rDgu1d.jpg?fit=850%2C565&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135882","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135882"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135882\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135819"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135882"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135882"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/xira.com\/p\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135882"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}