“The exact same thing happened to me”: 5th grade teacher issues warning over jury duty scam she nearly fell for

A 5th-grade teacher shares a PSA about a “convincing” jury duty scam she was “almost victim to.”

What did the scam caller say?

“They have my name and my address. They said that I failed to appear in front of a jury,” she begins.

Next, she says the caller claims she received the summons through certified mail and “someone signed for it.”

“I had these citations for failure to appear in court and ‘commitment of court’ order, or something like that,” she says.

Citations for failure to appear in court are typically given to individuals who do not show up for a court date in which they are the defendant, according to the Prison Policy Initiative.

@mrs_tait Be so cautious with this scam that’s going around! #stayaware #stayinformed #becareful #scam #scarystories #awareness #scammerstories #scammers #scammeralert #scammerstorytime ♬ original sound – Mrs Tait | 5th Grade Teacher

However, the TikToker did not have any pending charges that required her to appear in court. Plus, missing jury duty is not a criminal offense and would not result in a failure to appear citation.

She pushes back at the caller, saying she doesn’t trust the information he gives her.

“He’s like, ‘Ma’am, I’m not trying to do you any harm. It is my job just to give you all of this information,’” she recounts. “He was so convincing. It was absolutely terrifying.”

What did the police say about the jury duty scam?

“If you get a call about failure to appear for jury, it’s not real. It’s a scam,” she warns.

She says she hung up and called the sheriff’s department non-emergency number to confirm the information the mysterious caller gave her. She says the dispatcher assured her that the call was a “scam.”

“If you fail to appear [for jury duty], it will always come in the mail,” she explains. “Sometimes deputies will call you for witness stuff, and they will do the no caller ID just to protect their safety. But they were like, ‘That’s an absolute scam.’”

She says the dispatcher told her always to report similar calls so the department can “have it on record.”

In the comments, others say they’ve been targeted by similar scams.

“This is exact same thing happened to me,” one writes. The TikToker responds, “It’s so crazy! It honestly sickens me the way people prey on others.”

“I had the exact same scam and I totally fell for it! It scared the crap out of me!” another says.

The Daily Dot reached out to Mrs. Tait for further comment.