DeKalb County officials are sounding the alarm about an aggressive phone scam that is spooking residents with fake threats of jail time over so-called missed jury duty.
According to the county, callers are impersonating the sheriff’s office, insisting their targets skipped jury service and now face immediate arrest unless they pay up on the spot. The scammers have allegedly pushed people to buy prepaid gift cards or hand over sensitive personal information, all under the pressure of an invented emergency. County leaders are telling residents to treat these calls as fraud and to double-check any supposed summons through official court channels.
Chief and Administrative Judge Shondeana C. Morris told CBS News Atlanta, "We want to make it absolutely clear: no court or judge will ever call you demanding payment or threatening arrest for missing jury duty." The outlet reports that victims were pressured to purchase prepaid cards or turn over personal data in an attempt to clear bogus fines that never existed in the first place.
How the scam works
The DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office says the scammers typically claim to be deputies or court officials and tell the person on the line that a warrant has been issued for failing to appear for jury duty. From there, the pitch gets predictable: the victim is instructed to pay with prepaid money cards or gift cards, or to provide bank account or Social Security details, supposedly to avoid arrest.
In a poster circulated by the sheriff’s office, the message is blunt: “THIS IS NOT A LEGITIMATE CALL. IT IS A SCAM.” Residents are urged not to argue, negotiate, or explain, but simply to hang up. The advisory notes that anyone who does receive such a call should use the local reporting numbers listed by the agency rather than any number provided by the scammer.
Who to contact
For real information about jury service in DeKalb County, residents are told to go straight to the source. The DeKalb County Jury Management Office lists its phone line as 404-371-2022 and asks that questions be sent to [email protected] on the court’s jury page.
The DeKalb Superior Court’s jury page also reminds the public that legitimate jury notices come by mail, not by phone, and that the court will not demand payment over the phone for any reason. Local reporting on the alert has urged anyone who has already been defrauded to contact law enforcement and consumer-fraud channels so investigators can follow up on the cases.
How to avoid getting scammed
The FBI says these jury-duty impostor schemes are not unique to DeKalb and has warned that similar scams are popping up across the country. The guidance is simple, if not exactly glamorous: never give money or personal information to unsolicited callers, and remember that courts and law enforcement will not call out of the blue to demand payment.
FBI Atlanta recommends verifying any scary claim by hanging up and calling the agency back using an official number, not the one the caller gives you. If you think you have been targeted, you are urged to file a report with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at IC3 so investigators have a record of the incident.
Authorities note that this scam has resurfaced repeatedly, cycling through the community every so often with slightly different scripts but the same end goal. They say public awareness remains the best defense: hang up on suspicious calls, check official court pages for jury instructions, and report fraud so investigators can track and disrupt the operation. DeKalb leaders say they plan to keep up public outreach and scam alerts as they monitor new reports from residents.
