She asked too many questions. The scammer hung up.

 

 Well done.

A potential scam victim became suspicious and ultimately asked so many questions that the scammer hung up on her.

This story begins with a voicemail message.

“Hello … this is Sgt. Michael Pope,” the scammer said. “I’m with the Johnston County sheriff. This is no emergency. These legal matters are in reference to a jury service that you missed yesterday morning.”

He then gave the woman his phone number and badge number.

“I did Google the sergeant’s name before calling back, and it checked out, so I ended up calling back,” the woman wrote in a social media post. “The guy said I missed jury duty and that I now could be arrested.”

She thought it possible that she had indeed missed a jury summons.

“We are new to the state, so I am not even sure how they contact you here,” she wrote.

But then the scammer made a mistake.

“He said that a letter was delivered to my house and they have my legal signature,” the woman wrote. “This was my first red flag.”

She went on the offensive.

“I then asked him to send me a picture of my signature as someone clearly forged my signature,” she wrote. “He said he could not do that.”

She then Googled the phone number the scammer had given her, and “nothing came up.”

The scam began to unravel. The woman interrupted the scammer to tell him that she planned to search his phone number to make sure he was actually from the Sheriff’s Office.

“He immediately hung up on me,” she wrote.

The woman said she posted her story on social media because she wanted to warn others.

“Be on alert,” she wrote. “Ask questions and Google the number BEFORE you call back.”

The jury scam is a common one, said Chief Deputy Jeff Caldwell of the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office. A caller claims you missed jury duty and must immediately pay a fine or face arrest.

It’s a scam — always, Caldwell said. “Law enforcement will never ask for money over the phone,” he said. “Never. It is a scam.”

Page last updated on:  October 16, 2026