City Marshal Randy Williams wants to warn the public of a federal jury scam, involving the use of Judge D Drell’s name, that may involve threats of fines and/or jail time. The deceptive caller may telephone your home, cellphone, work phone, or email you with threats that you have missed federal jury service and if you don’t comply with their requests, you could be fined or face jail time. In various parts of Shreveport and Central Louisiana, citizens have been targeted by these fraudulent and bogus callers pretending to be U.S. Marshals.
In the calls or emails, the bogus caller may demand that you provide your personal or confidential information which could lead to identity theft or fraud. The U.S. Marshals and the United States District Courts would like the public to know that these fraudulent callers that demand that you pay a fine or threaten you with jail time are not connected to the U.S. Marshals or the Federal Court System.
Federal courts will NEVER require anyone to provide their sensitive information in a telephone call or email. Federal courts will normally conduct prospective juror business through the U.S. Postal Service, and any contact by real court officials will not include requests for Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, or any other personally identifiable information.
Members of the public are not contacted initially by email or phone for jury service. Prospective jurors first receive an official court mailing which may direct them to an online questionnaire. The official jury pool will never receive a phone call or email from the federal courts or the U.S. Marshals Service.
If you have received a phone call or email from someone claiming to be from the U.S. Marshals and this person demands that you pay a fine, threatens you with jail time or requests your personal information or credit card number, try to get the caller’s number off the caller ID on your phone. This information needs to be reported to the U.S. Marshals or your local law enforcement office.
Please write down any details the bogus caller might talk about so you can pass along that information to the U.S. Marshals investigators.
Additional information about the U.S. Marshals Service can be found at http://www.usmarshals.gov.
