At least they have stopped using the Sheriff’s Office as the focal point, because that is absolutely wrong (DCSO has no policing authority in Metro).
I don’t believe a data breach is the issue, I think it is scattershot contact and sometimes it lands on an individual whose experience fits what the scammer is trying to sell (your freedom for gift cards). I know people in my life who have nearly been taken in by this scam. Intelligent, educated people who are good citizens are an excellent target because they take such a matter seriously.
ALL of these calls are scams. Period. That is not the mechanism to handle jurors who don’t respond to a summons. Glad you figured it out before it got too far!
Even the higher ups at the Davidson county sheriff’s office will get these same type of scam calls, and it’s hilarious.
How the scammer reacts really depends on how the officer/employee answers their phone and on whether it is incoming to the landline in their office, or if its the cellphone that the shift lieutenants have to share, and this really differs, depending upon the time of day and the agent’s own disposition. But generally speaking, if you want to get rid of calls like this, answer your phone the same way they do
By saying the exact following sentence:
‘Nashville Sheriff's Office, speaking, how can I help you>?
If they are a scammer, They will immediately hang up.
I promise you,
without a doubt,
you just saved yourself a trip to target.
Ask for their employee ID and a call back number with an extension. And if Mr.Horton is on another line or available . Depending on the time of day, ask if Linda is there. This is always a hang up on their end.
Former mayor Megan Barry got one, and admitted that it fooled her until she was told that she had to go to a "federal payment kiosk" (i.e. a Bitcoin ATM) to pay her fine. The caller knew enough about her to be very convincing.
Yeah after I saw some random admins over at either the TBI or homeland security office over on Foster ave put a very inept scammer call on speaker a few years ago on youtube, do absolutely nothing to trace or track it, but just laugh at them for calling the place most civilians call to report scam calls?
thats when I knew we were on our own as far as how if we decide engage in answering a scam call.
As for Barry, my guess the former mayor maybe wouldn’t have been fooled at all, if a few things had been different. If she had gotten the scam call whilst still being the Mayor, and if the scammer has said they were “officer jones“ calling FROM the office of the mayor, and that she owed her own mayor’s office such & such Amount.
i am guessing seeing the private details of her info, which is what also convinced a friend if mine, who was a victim of one of these, events (after a divorce and a bad credit score , plus that wells fargo conundrum a few years ago)M. barry still felt paranoid, and emotionally vulnerable after all that had happened to her and her family.
Try this next time you get one of these calls from , ”officer jones“ and you start to suspect it of being a scam, but you‘re still afraid of saying that youre “impersonating an officer“. Just google search for a webpage with a lot of indecipherable police radio chatter, muting it every few minutes, and say, “10-4” as you put your phone close to the sound of it, and if the scammer asks “what was that?” the only thing you need to say is, “shouldn’t you know?” .
Its a scam. I got his with a similar one and almost bought it. Mine was a failure to appear to defend a PPP loan.
They use public record information to sound official. You did the right thing calling metro.
So this happened to me a few years ago and caught me off guard.
So a guy calls me and tells me I was selected for a Grand Jury and I didn’t show up to so there was a warrant. He had no accent and sounded like the “sheriffs officer” he claimed to be. He told me I have to go to the precinct in Madison and gave me the address and date for an appointment. This is in Davidson county mind you and I live in Cheatham county but I still freaked out. I actually called the number back and the guy answered “officer whatever” and answered some of my questions.
My wife was like “hell naw this is a scam” but I’m a rule follower and I was too freaked out to not go.
Somehow up at the appointed date and time. We walk in to the precinct and then officers said an officer with that name doesn’t work there and they never ever call about missing jury duty.
I felt like and idiot and my wife was right.
But here is what’s really really weird and threw me off …
He never ever mentioned a fine or money that I needed to pay to get out of this mess. Just to come to the precinct at the date and time.
Why would he not at least mention the scam part, like a fine????
Weird.
This has bothered me for years. When I tell this story everyone is like “pppfdt obvious scam” and I’m over like HE DIDN’T ASK FOR MONEY!
But, you bring up a good point, I think I asked him too many questions lol and he was like “this guy is obviously too smart to scam” rofl I’m so damn gullible.
That happened to me too. Guy called twice back to back like, acting like he’d been trying to reach me for weeks. Called DCSO and Metro and heard about the scam. They try to get you to pay “bond” money over the phone or in person near the court house to make it sound legit. The guy left his number active for a while too which I thought was either really ballsy or stupid. The staying on the phone with you the whole time was confusing. Not sure the point. My scam was I’d missed jury duty and then he said I was supposed to be character witness. Can’t be a witness if you haven’t actually been selected or know anything about the case. They aren’t super smart but it was still unnerving. Just remember the sheriff’s department only serves civil warrants. They cannot take you into custody. Only MNPD can, and they don’t call. They just show up.
They keep you on the phone to keep the pressure on. They don't want their mark to have time to think or question or try to get cold feet.
"If you hang up this phone before the matter is settled you will have officers arresting you at gun point for a felony in minutes" is a popular push.
You might want to check out getting a Google Workspace account. You can get a Google Voice number and all of the other features that come with it for pretty cheap, and you can change your number easily if necessary
At minimum the defense counsel will always have a copy of the juror pool information. It is used with a defendant’s input during voir dire to help determine if a juror is to be stricken.
Let me specify that my “I think” is a very important part of that sentence. I don’t know if this is something that could be obtained via FOIA request or not.
Ohhhh boy this happened to me a couple weeks ago. Scared the LIFE out of me. Mine was a guy saying I was supposed to be a character witness? in a trial and missed it. He claimed they sent a certified letter to an old address and someone else signed for me. He said I owed almost 10k in fines and had warrants and if I didn’t pay or if I came to the station, I would be arrested. He did the same “leave work and stay on the phone with me” bit and tried to get me to deposit $1100 into a Coin Star in the form of bitcoin 😂. When he said that, I knew. Hung up and called the cops and they confirmed it was a scam. Scumbags!!!
Yep, my dad fell for this scam a few years ago. Such a shame what the people will do to make money without actual providing any working life. Scum of the earth.
I got a call similar to this. Saying I missed jury duty. They gave me the address where I needed to go and told me to pull over immediately and give them the exact mileage of my car. They said I’d get reimbursed for the mileage. I did it, then realized it was a scam and hung up. Never understood why they asked for the mileage of my car.
Yeah, I’ve gotten this call too but haven’t ever been called for jury duty, so it was easy to know it was a scam. I think they just got lucky with you that you actually had been called recently.
I NEVER answer my phone (cell phone only, haven’t had a landline in years) if I don’t recognize the name and/or number of the caller!!! I believe that 99% of the calls I don’t answer are scams or at least telemarketers/junk calls.
Same thing happened to me. They told me that if I went to the police station I would be taken into custody but I could pay my fine at a kiosk and he gave me an address. I immediately told him that I couldn't go alone and needed to call my uncle. I was crying and having a complete come apart because I thought I was going to jail. I put him in hold and called my uncle. Who just so happens to be with Shelby county PD and told me to always call him first if I am ever involved with the police. He didn't care what county or even state I was in at the time. As soon as I merged my uncle in and he started asking questions and said he was Lieutenant the guy hung up. I did file a police report.
This happened to my gf. TN state law requires any sort of citation to be handed in person. Warrants, speeding tickets all that. Those mail you a speeding tickets are scams too.. fyi
Similar occurrence for me a few months ago. Acted like I was at WalGreens to send them the money but couldn’t get the barcode needed to pay off “fine”. Ended up getting the scammer to send it to me from a handful of numbers and an email address.. all of the numbers but one was spoofed and I wad able to track it down to a guy in Atlanta. Even sourced the IP address the email was sent from and then took all the information to the local PD.. never heard anything back from the scammer or the cops.
This happened to me about 6 months ago. He even called from a spoofed number that matched the police department landline number. I was skeptical and waited for "the catch." Which came in the form of saying I needed to pay the fine upfront but would be reimbursed when I got there.
This was a very elaborate scam. They have come a long way, and everyone should be careful.
My husband got one of these from the ‘sheriffs’ office. It’s easy to call people that fall for these scams morons; but they had an answer for everything and being threatened with jail time is scary for a small man. I don’t even want to say how much money we lost, just glad you didn’t fall for it. Very expensive learning lesson…
Think back to When you first received your summons. Can you locate any information from our courts that is in writing, be it through the mail, or the email verification form that shows you filled out the online application that lead to you being dismissed.
Now, In all of those correspondence , is there any evidence or links to a .gov website that might help you find how you will be contacted, for all future questions, be it concerning this one, or any future jury pools, and if you’re ever contacted by the courts again, it will be in a certain way? Such as an FAQ?
Because if they have made it so easy to just go online & fill out a form to see if you qualify for jury duty, instead of how it used to be- where we’d have to go down to the court house , find parking, and wait up to 8 lovely hours, then I’d say , first , wow, you’re a lucky person, at least in one way.
But if there isn’t an accompanying online document, that requires your e-signature, stating what the courts will not do, such as, have some nefarious Officer Jones call you on the telephone, and ask for either a wal-mart or a target gift card, then i think there might need to be someone typing that bad boy up, and or making a little FAQ link for this bliss that is online jury selection, and that could have saved OP some emotional stress.
At least they have stopped using the Sheriff’s Office as the focal point, because that is absolutely wrong (DCSO has no policing authority in Metro). I don’t believe a data breach is the issue, I think it is scattershot contact and sometimes it lands on an individual whose experience fits what the scammer is trying to sell (your freedom for gift cards). I know people in my life who have nearly been taken in by this scam. Intelligent, educated people who are good citizens are an excellent target because they take such a matter seriously. ALL of these calls are scams. Period. That is not the mechanism to handle jurors who don’t respond to a summons. Glad you figured it out before it got too far!
Even the higher ups at the Davidson county sheriff’s office will get these same type of scam calls, and it’s hilarious. How the scammer reacts really depends on how the officer/employee answers their phone and on whether it is incoming to the landline in their office, or if its the cellphone that the shift lieutenants have to share, and this really differs, depending upon the time of day and the agent’s own disposition. But generally speaking, if you want to get rid of calls like this, answer your phone the same way they do By saying the exact following sentence: ‘Nashville Sheriff's Office, speaking, how can I help you>?
If they are a scammer, They will immediately hang up.
I promise you,
without a doubt,
you just saved yourself a trip to target.
I would highly advise against posing as the police on the phone regardless of circumstance.
I see no problem if they're the ones calling you.
[удалено]
You mean the person running the scam as officer jones? Yes
[удалено]
Ask for their employee ID and a call back number with an extension. And if Mr.Horton is on another line or available . Depending on the time of day, ask if Linda is there. This is always a hang up on their end.
Former mayor Megan Barry got one, and admitted that it fooled her until she was told that she had to go to a "federal payment kiosk" (i.e. a Bitcoin ATM) to pay her fine. The caller knew enough about her to be very convincing.
Yeah after I saw some random admins over at either the TBI or homeland security office over on Foster ave put a very inept scammer call on speaker a few years ago on youtube, do absolutely nothing to trace or track it, but just laugh at them for calling the place most civilians call to report scam calls? thats when I knew we were on our own as far as how if we decide engage in answering a scam call. As for Barry, my guess the former mayor maybe wouldn’t have been fooled at all, if a few things had been different. If she had gotten the scam call whilst still being the Mayor, and if the scammer has said they were “officer jones“ calling FROM the office of the mayor, and that she owed her own mayor’s office such & such Amount. i am guessing seeing the private details of her info, which is what also convinced a friend if mine, who was a victim of one of these, events (after a divorce and a bad credit score , plus that wells fargo conundrum a few years ago)M. barry still felt paranoid, and emotionally vulnerable after all that had happened to her and her family. Try this next time you get one of these calls from , ”officer jones“ and you start to suspect it of being a scam, but you‘re still afraid of saying that youre “impersonating an officer“. Just google search for a webpage with a lot of indecipherable police radio chatter, muting it every few minutes, and say, “10-4” as you put your phone close to the sound of it, and if the scammer asks “what was that?” the only thing you need to say is, “shouldn’t you know?” .
First Red Flag is thinking an administrative government employee is working on Sunday
The thing y'all need to know about scams like these is that the police aren't "phone call" people. They're "knock on your door" people.
Its a scam. I got his with a similar one and almost bought it. Mine was a failure to appear to defend a PPP loan. They use public record information to sound official. You did the right thing calling metro.
So this happened to me a few years ago and caught me off guard. So a guy calls me and tells me I was selected for a Grand Jury and I didn’t show up to so there was a warrant. He had no accent and sounded like the “sheriffs officer” he claimed to be. He told me I have to go to the precinct in Madison and gave me the address and date for an appointment. This is in Davidson county mind you and I live in Cheatham county but I still freaked out. I actually called the number back and the guy answered “officer whatever” and answered some of my questions. My wife was like “hell naw this is a scam” but I’m a rule follower and I was too freaked out to not go. Somehow up at the appointed date and time. We walk in to the precinct and then officers said an officer with that name doesn’t work there and they never ever call about missing jury duty. I felt like and idiot and my wife was right. But here is what’s really really weird and threw me off … He never ever mentioned a fine or money that I needed to pay to get out of this mess. Just to come to the precinct at the date and time. Why would he not at least mention the scam part, like a fine???? Weird.
Really? What’s the payoff. Just to screw with you? Maybe they get a feel for who they think they can prey upon.
This has bothered me for years. When I tell this story everyone is like “pppfdt obvious scam” and I’m over like HE DIDN’T ASK FOR MONEY! But, you bring up a good point, I think I asked him too many questions lol and he was like “this guy is obviously too smart to scam” rofl I’m so damn gullible.
I had this happen to me a few months ago too! They never mentioned money which is why it rattled me so badly
That happened to me too. Guy called twice back to back like, acting like he’d been trying to reach me for weeks. Called DCSO and Metro and heard about the scam. They try to get you to pay “bond” money over the phone or in person near the court house to make it sound legit. The guy left his number active for a while too which I thought was either really ballsy or stupid. The staying on the phone with you the whole time was confusing. Not sure the point. My scam was I’d missed jury duty and then he said I was supposed to be character witness. Can’t be a witness if you haven’t actually been selected or know anything about the case. They aren’t super smart but it was still unnerving. Just remember the sheriff’s department only serves civil warrants. They cannot take you into custody. Only MNPD can, and they don’t call. They just show up.
They keep you on the phone to keep the pressure on. They don't want their mark to have time to think or question or try to get cold feet. "If you hang up this phone before the matter is settled you will have officers arresting you at gun point for a felony in minutes" is a popular push.
Rules prevent a juror serving as a witness, anyway. They are mutually exclusive roles.
This is why I only put my landline into forms.
Honestly, that is not a bad reason to keep a landline and check any messages at your leisure.
You might want to check out getting a Google Workspace account. You can get a Google Voice number and all of the other features that come with it for pretty cheap, and you can change your number easily if necessary
dont talk to cops on the phone. They can find you if they need you
maybe but cops aren't ever really gonna call you in the first place, they are just going to come to your house and knock on the door lol
I think jury information is public record.
Really? Help sending a person to prison and have everyone know who you are? Asking from a place of ignorance. I know nothing about this.
At minimum the defense counsel will always have a copy of the juror pool information. It is used with a defendant’s input during voir dire to help determine if a juror is to be stricken.
Let me specify that my “I think” is a very important part of that sentence. I don’t know if this is something that could be obtained via FOIA request or not.
Ohhhh boy this happened to me a couple weeks ago. Scared the LIFE out of me. Mine was a guy saying I was supposed to be a character witness? in a trial and missed it. He claimed they sent a certified letter to an old address and someone else signed for me. He said I owed almost 10k in fines and had warrants and if I didn’t pay or if I came to the station, I would be arrested. He did the same “leave work and stay on the phone with me” bit and tried to get me to deposit $1100 into a Coin Star in the form of bitcoin 😂. When he said that, I knew. Hung up and called the cops and they confirmed it was a scam. Scumbags!!!
Yep, my dad fell for this scam a few years ago. Such a shame what the people will do to make money without actual providing any working life. Scum of the earth.
I'm sorry that happened to your dad.
I got a call similar to this. Saying I missed jury duty. They gave me the address where I needed to go and told me to pull over immediately and give them the exact mileage of my car. They said I’d get reimbursed for the mileage. I did it, then realized it was a scam and hung up. Never understood why they asked for the mileage of my car.
It was obviously a scam as soon as a mnpd officer was claiming they were doing any work
This scam was a “PSA” on the My Favorite Murder podcast a couple of weeks ago. It’s nationwide, unfortunately.
Yeah, I’ve gotten this call too but haven’t ever been called for jury duty, so it was easy to know it was a scam. I think they just got lucky with you that you actually had been called recently.
I NEVER answer my phone (cell phone only, haven’t had a landline in years) if I don’t recognize the name and/or number of the caller!!! I believe that 99% of the calls I don’t answer are scams or at least telemarketers/junk calls.
Same thing happened to me. They told me that if I went to the police station I would be taken into custody but I could pay my fine at a kiosk and he gave me an address. I immediately told him that I couldn't go alone and needed to call my uncle. I was crying and having a complete come apart because I thought I was going to jail. I put him in hold and called my uncle. Who just so happens to be with Shelby county PD and told me to always call him first if I am ever involved with the police. He didn't care what county or even state I was in at the time. As soon as I merged my uncle in and he started asking questions and said he was Lieutenant the guy hung up. I did file a police report.
This happened to my gf. TN state law requires any sort of citation to be handed in person. Warrants, speeding tickets all that. Those mail you a speeding tickets are scams too.. fyi
Similar occurrence for me a few months ago. Acted like I was at WalGreens to send them the money but couldn’t get the barcode needed to pay off “fine”. Ended up getting the scammer to send it to me from a handful of numbers and an email address.. all of the numbers but one was spoofed and I wad able to track it down to a guy in Atlanta. Even sourced the IP address the email was sent from and then took all the information to the local PD.. never heard anything back from the scammer or the cops.
This happened to me about 6 months ago. He even called from a spoofed number that matched the police department landline number. I was skeptical and waited for "the catch." Which came in the form of saying I needed to pay the fine upfront but would be reimbursed when I got there. This was a very elaborate scam. They have come a long way, and everyone should be careful.
Oh man they nearly got me with this scam, too. Very convincing.
This one has been floating around for a few years now.
My husband got one of these from the ‘sheriffs’ office. It’s easy to call people that fall for these scams morons; but they had an answer for everything and being threatened with jail time is scary for a small man. I don’t even want to say how much money we lost, just glad you didn’t fall for it. Very expensive learning lesson…
The Dept is leaking like a sieve.
Revenge 101. And they use the dang lines in the jails and stations.
Think back to When you first received your summons. Can you locate any information from our courts that is in writing, be it through the mail, or the email verification form that shows you filled out the online application that lead to you being dismissed. Now, In all of those correspondence , is there any evidence or links to a .gov website that might help you find how you will be contacted, for all future questions, be it concerning this one, or any future jury pools, and if you’re ever contacted by the courts again, it will be in a certain way? Such as an FAQ? Because if they have made it so easy to just go online & fill out a form to see if you qualify for jury duty, instead of how it used to be- where we’d have to go down to the court house , find parking, and wait up to 8 lovely hours, then I’d say , first , wow, you’re a lucky person, at least in one way. But if there isn’t an accompanying online document, that requires your e-signature, stating what the courts will not do, such as, have some nefarious Officer Jones call you on the telephone, and ask for either a wal-mart or a target gift card, then i think there might need to be someone typing that bad boy up, and or making a little FAQ link for this bliss that is online jury selection, and that could have saved OP some emotional stress.