Don’t fall for this new scam

Just when it feels like we've covered them all, from the grandparent scam to the IRS scam, the 'say yes' telemarketing scam to the lottery scam, here's one I never heard of. Police in Stafford Township received word on this from the FBI's Philadelphia office, and are warning you not to fall for it.

Con-artists are calling residents and saying they are representatives from the US. Marshals Service or a county sheriff's department. They tell you that you failed to appear for jury duty, either local or federal. Of course a warrant has been issued for your arrest and you must either appear in court or pay a fine. Next you'll be told to purchase a prepaid debit card and provide the caller with that card's information. Naturally your money will be long gone.

This is a decent scam in that it hasn't made the rounds much so it's not on most people's radar screen. Also, with how busy some of us get, you might think you really did receive a summons to report for jury duty long ago and completely forgot about it.

When you think about how many scams are being done via phone today, perhaps actual telemarketers aren't the pond scum we've come to regard them as. Think about it. Telemarketers have trained many of us to never answer our phones at all if it's not someone already in our contacts. So it turns out our repulsion for legit telemarketers might be the only thing standing between us and a Nigerian finance minister having our grandsons being held at a prosecutor's office after winning a sweepstakes and not paying his IRS bill.

More from New Jersey 101.5: