A Close Call
Like most people in this day and age, Paula Martin is familiar with the concept of scammers attempting to contact people and attempting to extort money from them, and is diligent about deleting and reporting suspicious emails and text messages. But that didn’t keep her for nearly falling for one of these scams herself.
It began with a phone call on April 14 from a man who identified himself as Officer Thomas Boone and said he was with the Rockbridge County Sheriff’s Office.
Martin, a local Realtor, couldn’t speak to him at the time and they exchanged phone calls throughout the rest of the day before connecting the following afternoon.
At that point, “Officer Boone” informed Martin that she had failed to report for jury duty on March 25 and a warrant had been issued for her arrest. In order to avoid being arrested, he explained that there was a process that Martin would have to follow: She would need to buy two prepaid debit cards, put $500 on each of them and bring them to the sheriff’s office.
“Officer Boone” told her she would be refunded the money, but that this would assure them that she had gone through the process. He said he would remain on the line with her the whole time.
“I thought it was the dumbest damn thing I’ve ever heard, but I’m a get-‘er-done type of person,” Martin told The News-Gazette. “If I would have gone upstairs to my husband, he would have said, ‘This is bullcrap. Don’t do it. You’re being scammed.’ But I didn’t. I was being ‘Get-‘er-done Paula.’ I put on my coat, put the dogs in the trunk and off I went to the dollar store.”
Martin drove to the Dollar General in Lexington and went in to buy the cards. She asked a clerk where the cards were and then asked the clerk to speak to “Officer Boone.” The clerk told Martin to mute the call, then told her that another woman had come in with a similar story and hadn’t gotten her money back, warning Martin that she thought this was a scam. Martin unmuted the call and relayed that to “Officer Boone,” who promptly hung up without any further explanation.
“I can’t believe I fell for it,” Martin said. “I can’t believe I was so damn dumb that I fell for something like this, because every step along the way, if I had my skeptical hat on, I could have seen through it, but I didn’t. Generally speaking, I’m a trusting person. If you tell me something, I’m gonna tend to believe it.
“If I would have asked for his badge number, he would have been gone,” she added. “If I would have called an attorney – and I know a bunch of them – they would have told me it’s a scam, but I didn’t do that.”
Martin reported the scam to the Rockbridge County Sheriff’s Office, who put a post on its Facebook page the next day warning people about the scam. In the post, Sheriff Tony Mc-Faddin encouraged citizens to remain vigilant.
“Scammers often use fear and urgency to trick people into making quick decisions,” he said in the post. “If you ever receive a suspicious call claiming to be from our office, hang up and call us directly. We’re here to help and protect our community.”
Last week, the Lexington Police Department made a similar post to its Facebook page after receiving similar reports from two separate citizens on different days.
Chief Angela Greene told The News-Gazette in an email that these two individuals had experiences similar to Martin’s – they each received a call from an individual identifying themselves as a law enforcement officer who informed them that an arrest warrant had been issued and they needed to purchase prepaid debit cards and provide him with the numbers in order to avoid being arrested. Both individuals went to the same local store where the clerk recognized the scam and stopped them from falling victim to it. -While there can be a penalty for failing to report for jury duty, both Christopher Coleman and Michelle Trout – the circuit court clerks for Buena Vista and Rockbridge County, respectively – told The News-Gazette that the process for what happens if someone fails to report for jury duty is different than what “Officer Boone” told Martin.
In reality, if an individual fails to report for jury duty, a notice to show cause is issued by the judge and is then served to the individual by the Rockbridge County Sheriff’s Office (or the Buena Vista Sheriff’s Office in Buena Vista). The deputy will deliver the notice in person, or leave it on a door if multiple attempts to deliver the notice in person are unsuccessful.
The notice contains a court date for a hearing, during which the individual will go before the judge and explain why they didn’t report for jury duty. After hearing their explanation, the judge will issue a fine, usually in the amount of $50, and dismiss the show cause. A fine may not be applied if the judge determines that the individual has a valid reason, but the show cause is dismissed in either case. There is no criminal proceeding and a warrant for arrest is not issued.
“Scamming has really got out of hand,” Trout said. “We need jurors. And a lot of times, jury duty isn’t something people view as a fun thing, but it’s very necessary. And they’re just adding more to it by this scamming and it really, really bothers me.”
“The sheriff’s office will be involved, but they’re not going to call you,” she added. “It’s all going to be done through paperwork, so if you get a call, hang up and call us.”
For her part, Martin says she’s learned a lot by going through this, both about how scammers operate and a little about herself too.
“This was like going to college and getting a degree in how not to be scammed,” she said. “I had to go through the whole thing … and now I know. So I have a skeptical hat, and I’m gonna put it on. But I’ve never been scammed before, and the ones that come through the mail, on the internet, I just delete them. The ones that come to my phone, I just delete them and report them. I don’t mess with those. This was very different.
“I’ve had to process it,” she added. “I’ve had to talk it over with people, and from the processing of it, I’m learning about myself too, about how gullible I can be and how willing I am to go with the game, and I’m not going to be like that anymore. I’m not going to be mean. I’m not going to mistrust people. I’m not going to wear my skeptical hat on my clients. But if somebody calls me like that … they’re not going to do it twice.”
