CALHOUN COUNTY, Mich. — Some residents in Calhoun County received a strange call this week basically saying, “You failed to acknowledge a summons requiring you to appear in federal court for jury duty – and now you owe us money”.
The Calhoun County Sheriff’s Department says that’s the phone call several people in Battle Creek and Emmett Township received Tuesday from someone pretending to be a supervisor with the Sheriff’s Department Civil Division. But police say no one has been defrauded out of any money, so far.
Investigators say the caller would go into a long spiel, telling the targets of the scam attempt that, because they failed to appear for jury duty, they’d have to pay a fine. And that they would have to do so by using a Greendot pre-paid VISA credit card that generates a transaction I.D. number. Police say the man impersonating the sheriff’s supervisor would also encourage the intended targets to meet with him at a bogus office behind the Justice Complex in Battle Creek.
The real police say incident remains open, pending further investigation. And they encourage anyone who receives such a phone call to report it to their local police department.
