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Jury Duty scam circulating North Dakota

North Dakota's office of the Attorney General wants citizens to know about a resurfaced jury duty scam making the rounds in the state.

Parrell Grossman is director of the consumer protection division. He says this is a scam that comes around periodically and has been gaining steam in the last week or so. He says the con artist will call a potential victim, impersonating law enforcement and informing them that they've missed their jury duty summons. The scammer will then tell the victim that in order to avoid jail time, they'll need to pay a fine - either with a pre-paid cash or gift card. Grossman says with this particular scam the scammer tells victims that if they pay their fine with cash they will get a discount on their penalty.

"It really is quite insidious. One of our recent consumers sent a thousand dollars cash overnight, and then they called her and told her she had mailed it to the wrong address. So now they needed her to re-send the information. In that particular instance we maybe could have stopped that transaction, but they're getting quite clever and also had her mail her receipt through the mail so she no longer had that receipt."

Grossman says it's important for people to know that no court will ever make calls that threaten arrest for missing jury duty. He also says no legitimate government or law enforcement official will ever demand that you send cash or gift cards to pay fines. 

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