Woman says jury duty scam cost her $5,000. Now she’s warning others
By Marc Liverman
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BUNCOMBE COUNTY, North Carolina (WLOS) — An Asheville woman is sharing her story after she says she was scammed out of $5,000 by a person pretending to be with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office.
The woman was so shaken up that she didn’t want to reveal her identity. She said it started with a phone call on Wednesday, April 8, when a man accused the victim of failing to appear for jury duty and said she was in contempt of court.
“Two warrants for my arrest were active, and that I needed to pay in order to get those dismissed and suspended,” she explained, adding that he told her if she did, “that it would be refunded once I showed up to the courthouse, that they would write me a check, and he kept convincing me of that.”
So, the woman said she transferred $5,000 through Apple Pay, which is like cash because the funds can’t be recovered.
“I feel really ashamed and embarrassed that this happened, but it was so convincing and so scary,” she said.
As it turns out, the Asheville woman isn’t the only local victim. She said a person with the Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office told her she was the 10th person to tell a similar story that day.
She explained that her main reason for speaking out was to help prevent this type of scam from happening to someone else.
“It breaks my heart that it’s happening in my community that has already worked really hard to be in recovery,” she said, choking back tears.
The Buncombe County Sheriff’s Office confirmed it is working on multiple cases like this.
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