McLean County Sheriff warns of jury duty scam

Posted on May 29, 2015

By Adam Studzinski

BLOOMINGTON – McLean County Sheriff Jon Sandage is warning residents about a jury duty scam.

Sandage explained a scammer is calling citizens claiming to be from the sheriff’s office and saying the resident has missed jury duty. The scammer asks the resident for $109 in order to avoid further legal action.

“They encourage the person to go get a pre-paid cash card and send it; or a money order to send it,” said Sandage. “The sheriff’s office doesn’t call people and let them know that they missed (jury duty) and we certainly don’t give them the option of paying a certain amount to get out of trouble.”

Sandage said these scams can be difficult to trace.

“It’s hard for us to trace even the phone numbers they call from,” said Sandage. “So a lot of it ends up being a dead end, but as much as we can educate the public on what not to do the better off we are.”

Anyone who receives one of these calls is asked to call the sheriff’s office or the McLean County Jury Commission.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].

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