An Arizona woman lost more than $30K to fraudsters posing as police in a jury duty scam — and she’s not alone. How to protect your money

“According to them, if I paid the citations which they were trying to give me — failure to appear in court and contempt of court … then the judge would dismiss my case,” she told Investigate TV.

When Kristine met with the supposed officers, their requests quickly became absurd. They escalated their demands from $16,000 to $35,000, and directed her to drive to four different banks to collect the money.

By the time she knew something was wrong, she was too alarmed to resist.

“Just follow your gut,” Kristine warned others. “Because if I would have done that, it would’ve ended way sooner” (1).

Scams — and losses — are on the rise

The FTC reports that scams of all types, and particularly imposter scams, are becoming more common across the country. Losses to government imposter scams increased $171 million between 2023 and 2024, totalling $789 million (2).

Also according to FTC data, as of the third quarter of 2025, Arizona received 2,112 reports of government imposter scams, for a total loss of $7.5 million (3). Imposter scams generally — of government officials, businesses and others — are by far the most common scams reported, and generate the most losses. Arizona ranks seventh for scam reports among states. Only Delaware, Maryland, Nevada, Colorado, Florida and Oregon rank higher. This case highlights a growing nationwide threat (3).

How scammers trick you

New technology is making it easier for scammers to trick Americans into falling for their lies. The FTC’s Consumer Advice Bureau explains that scammers take advantage of scare tactics to get you to pay up or give them your personal and banking information (4).

While it’s true that missing jury duty is a serious offense, and can be punishable by fine or arrest, it’s uncommon for you to miss your summons notifications. During the scam call (or in an email), the imposter will try to convince you that you missed jury duty, and that you received the proper notice. Identifying themselves as police or a court official, they will tell you there’s a warrant out for your arrest, but that you can pay a fine to avoid jail time. These threats are used to pressure you into acting quickly, rather than taking the time to think logically.

How to spot fraud calls

The scammer will ask you for immediate payment. Remember that no government agency will do that, and certainly not over the phone or by email.

Other red flags to look out for include:

• Asking to pay by gift cards, a payment app, cryptocurrency, or a wire transfer
• Asking for personal information like your Social Security number or date of birth
• Asking to meet you in-person to pay the fines, as in Kristine’s case
• Threatening to arrest you immediately if you don’t pay
• Telling you that you can’t hang up, or using other tactics to keep you on the phone
• Sending you to fake websites
• Demanding that payments are made at a "government kiosk" — this is a common tactic to get you to transfer money through a cryptocurrency ATM (5)

If you receive a call like this, hang up and report the incident to the FTC (6). If you’re unsure whether a call is legitimate, you can call the court directly to verify, or call your local police precinct. Remember that it is always okay to hang up and verify a call yourself through a phone number you know is correct. You can also consider using call-blocking tools and security software for your email that can help you to screen out scams.

Article sources

We rely only on vetted sources and credible third-party reporting. For details, see our editorial ethics and guidelines.

Investigate TV (1); FTC (2, 3, 4, 6); Fox 6 News (5)