Goochland County sheriff warns residents about jury duty scam calls

Scammers are phoning Goochland County residents, pretending to be sheriff’s office personnel and claiming the target missed jury duty and must pay a fee to avoid arrest and extra fines. The Goochland County Sheriff’s Office said it has received multiple reports of the scheme and warned that it will never ask for money to avoid a warrant, an arrest or any other legal process.

The pitch depends on urgency. Callers are using legal-sounding threats to pressure residents into paying before they can verify the claim, a tactic that fits the broader pattern of government-impersonation fraud. In a small county like Goochland, that can make the call sound convincing enough to catch people off guard, especially when the caller says immediate action is required.

Residents who get one of the calls should hang up and report it to the Goochland County Sheriff’s Office at 804-556-5349. Anyone who already answered the phone, shared personal information or sent money should call that number right away and stop engaging with the caller.

The warning came as Goochland County also flagged a separate wave of fraudulent emails sent to applicants in the region, including Goochland. Those emails falsely claimed to be from county staff and demanded wire-transfer payment before a case could be scheduled for a public hearing. County officials said legitimate email correspondence will come from a goochlandva.us address, and payments to the Community Development Department must be made through the county’s EnerGov system.

State and federal guidance matches the county’s warning. The Virginia court system says courts will never call, text or email to demand immediate payment or threaten arrest or license suspension unless someone pays over the phone. The Federal Trade Commission says scammers impersonating law enforcement may spoof caller ID and may demand payment by cash, Bitcoin ATM, gift cards, payment apps or wire transfer. For Goochland residents, the red flags are clear: missed jury duty claims, demands for immediate payment and any threat of arrest tied to money.