California Personal Injury Lawyers Blog
Some of our readers may be familiar with some of the awful scams run on folks in Los Angeles and California. There is one scam where the victim (often referred to as the mark) is promised a new Mercedes (and maybe even some cash too), and all they have to do is pay a few thousand dollars upfront for the delivery. Guess what, the Mercedes never comes.
Another older scam, actually perpetrated many years ago on an elderly relative of a member of our personal injury law firm occurred when the victim received a call that his nephew had been arrested, and money was necessary for bail. Of course the nephew, supposedly in jail, could not be reached to expose the scam. The nephew was never arrested much less in jail and the bail money was gone.
Still another scam occurs when the scammer requests someone else cash a check (making up some reason why the scammer cannot do it, e.g., ID lost, etc.), and that although the check is counterfeit it appears quite genuine, and the mark is promised a few hundred dollars for his or her time. The check appears good, so good that the teller cashes it for many thousands of dollars, then the mark gives all the money to the scammer, less a few hundred dollars for the mark’s services, but then a few days to a few weeks later the bank discovers the fraud and withdraws funds from the mark’s own account to cover the bad check, leaving the mark out many thousands of dollars.
So here is the new jury subpoena scam or con our firm just learned about, although some of you may already know about it. A deputy sheriff calls the mark, explaining that two jury summons were served (mailed) to the mark, but in violation the mark did not appear for jury or grand jury duty. So there are two citations pending for the mark and unless this is resolved quickly a warrant will be issued. The penalty includes a $1,500.00 fine and possibly a few days in jail! But due to overcrowded jails and the professionalism of Los Angeles County Sheriff Luna, he does not want to arrest you, but wants to give you a chance to give your side of the story (which obviously includes your explanation that you never received any such jury summons—because there was none) to resolve this by meeting the deputy sheriff at the sheriff’s office located at the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse in Van Nuys, California. After the interview, a summary will be prepared, then a court hearing, before a judge, will be set. The deputy offered to do it at the courthouse on Saturday even though the courts are closed on weekends because the deputy has extra work to catch-up on.
A tipoff was the call – the jury department won’t make such calls; but a counter was the meeting supposedly was to take place at the sheriff’s office in the Superior Court building.
When verification wisely was requested by the mark by calling the Lost Hills Sheriff’s office, the person at the desk immediately said it’s a scam and do not appear. What apparently happens is someone posing as a deputy sheriff meets the mark outside the courthouse then advises the mark that for a certain amount of money this can go away without any further time or risks – without waiting for the deputy to finish what the deputy supposedly would be working on before the deputy could meet with the mark, then doing a 45 minute interview with the deputy, then scheduling still another date to meet with the judge at the courthouse to see what the judge will decide. Naturally, rather than going through all this, including the time, stress and risks of a follow-up court hearing, some will pay.
Apparently this has been going on for awhile, in fact, so long that the desk officer at Lost Hills immediately, without any hesitation, recognized it as a scam!
So if you receive any such call, do not participate in it and immediately call the police and or the sheriff.
There are so many scams going on now, particularly preying on the elderly, so be careful and when in doubt search the internet for a description of such scams, contact your local police department or sheriff’s office, or contact us.
We are happy to help as we must all assist to put these scammers out of business; and should you ever have any injury accident that is not your fault please contact us for an absolutely FREE consultation and case evaluation. With our law firm the consultation is FREE and if we take your case we do so on a contingency fee which means there is NO fee until you WIN!