February 23, 2021 – Macon County Residents have been receiving phone calls from scammers identifying themselves as law enforcement with the Macon County Sheriff’s Office. The caller ID reveals a 217 area code and the scammer informs the person that they missed jury duty. The scammer then tries to convince the person receiving the call to pay a fine or face having an arrest warrant issued for them.
Once a person agrees to this the scammer then asks the victim to go to CVS or another store in order to purchase gift cards and to provide the information from the card as payment for the fine. This scam is similar to many others in which the victim is frightened into buying gift cards and providing them to the caller.
The Circuit Clerk’s Office sends out jury duty notices in the mail. The Macon County Sheriff’s Office will not call and ask for payment over the phone due to missed jury duty or any offense. If you are a victim of a telephone scam please report it to the law enforcement agency that serves you.
