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Jury Duty Prank Line

published: July 13, 2012

Clerk of Court, Patty Baker Warns Public to Beware of Jury Duty Prank Line

Canton, GA – Cherokee County Clerk of Courts, Patty Baker have discovered that Cherokee County residents are falling prey to prank phone messages indicating they have failed to report for jury duty and will be fined $500 and serve a 30 day jail sentence for failing to appear. Victims are contacted via text message and/or email and told to call a phone number to receive a message. The phone numbers are advertised as the “Jury Duty Prank Line” on the website www.humorhotlines.com. Ms. Baker is urging citizens not to call these numbers and fall victim to this prank.

These prank phone messages are creating unnecessary anxiety for Cherokee County residents and creating extra work for court officials who have received phone calls from worried citizens who have fallen victim to these prank phone messages. The message received by the caller sounds very convincing and if the caller does not listen to the entire message they will not be given the information that it is meant to be a joke.

In the past, several telephone scams have been conducted using jury duty as a guise to obtain personal information. Clerk of Court Patty Baker cautions citizens as follows: Jury Management staff will NEVER contact citizens by phone or email and ask for Social Security numbers, credit card numbers or other sensitive information. Do not give out such information over the phone or by email to anyone who contacts you claiming to be with law enforcement or the judicial system. Please report any such calls or emails received to law enforcement.

If you have been a victim of this or a similar scam and have shared your Social Security number, you may also want to report it to the Social Security Fraud Hotline at 1-800-269-0271 and all three major credit bureaus.

Patty Baker

Clerk of Court

Cherokee County