PULASKI COUNTY, Ark. — Pulaski County officials have been raising the alarm on a scam that has been circling for weeks.
Recently, there has been a scammer pretending to be part of the Pulaski County Sheriff's Office and Circuit Court. They have been telling people they owe money for missing jury duty.
"I was sitting at work, and I got a phone call from the sheriff's department, and they said that I had missed a jury duty and that I needed to get a bond payment because there was a warrant for my arrest," Katie Childs explained.
Childs almost fell victim to the scam and refers to the call as one of the most terrifying phone calls of her life. It was a conversation that lasted 30 minutes to an hour.
"They called me from the like the courthouse number, they were very convincing. They emailed over some, like the paperwork that I had supposedly missed, and I even got as far as like, I went to the bank, and I was standing there talking to the teller and I just I was like, man, I'm being scammed," Childs added.
Pulaski County Clerk Terri Hollingsworth said that this is the first time she's seen a scam as unique as this.
"A lady had come into the office and had $7,500 cash in her hand trying to pay one of our clerks. and our clerk said, ma'am, we can't take this here and so the lady explained the situation and said you've been scammed," Hollingsworth described.
Hollingsworth said their staff has been on high alert ever since they discovered the scam and want to alert the public immediately.
"Their life savings is what's hanging in the balance and some folks may be giving up that money and we want people to just stop and pay attention to what's going on," Hollingsworth said.
So, what do you need to look out for?
Well, Childs said that one red flag to watch out for is the spelling. You should make sure there are no typos.
"I should've paid attention to the typos, like one being contempt of court that was completely wrong," Childs added.
Another red flag to be aware of is the immediate phone call demanding money. Hollingsworth stressed that their offices will never do that.
"There are definitely procedures if you owe money because you got to get a letter before you leave the courthouse, the judge is probably going to tell you the steps, and then you get a letter to follow up. They'll tell you how to do that and then you can easily make arrangements with our accounting office," Hollingsworth said.
She said their offices have received about 20 calls a day and they have advised people to take a moment and analyze the situation if they ever come across a situation like this.
"They need to make sure that they pay attention to whatever number is calling them and we just want our seniors and just unsuspecting folks to make sure that they're going to be more aware about what's going on," Hollingsworth added.