Phone, text and email jury-duty scam targets Orange County residents

Calls, texts and emails falsely claiming to be from the courts are targeting Orange County residents in Goshen and across the region, pressuring recipients with threats of arrest, fines or prosecution and demanding immediate payment or sensitive personal information.

Local officials identified the pattern and urged residents not to engage. Molly O’Donnell, Commissioner of Jurors for Orange County, said, “The Orange County Commissioner of Jurors Office will never call, email, or text anyone demanding payment of any kind.” O’Donnell added that “These scammers rely on fear and urgency to pressure people into acting quickly.” Orange County Sheriff Paul Arteta characterized the messages as deliberate exploitation: “These calls are criminal scams intended to exploit the public and undermine confidence in our justice system.” Sheriff Arteta urged residents not to engage with callers and to report suspicious activity.

If you receive a suspicious jury-duty contact, hang up immediately and record details about the call. Report the incident to the Orange County Sheriff’s Office non-emergency line at 845-291-7929. For questions about a summons, contact the Orange County Commissioner of Jurors Office at 845-476-3600 or by email at orangejury at nycourts dot gov. Verify official jury information only through the New York State Unified Court System juror information site.

Similar warnings from other jurisdictions underscore the nationwide reach of the scam. The Orange County Superior Court advisory notes that “Any telephone contact by real court officials do not include requests for social security numbers, credit card numbers, or any other sensitive information.” The Hon. Charles Margines, Presiding Judge of the Orange County Superior Court, “urges citizens to not provide any information, especially personal identifying information such as their social security numbers or bank and credit card account numbers, in response to these illegal solicitations.” Occourts also highlighted that identity theft affects “more than 10 million Americans every year.”

Florida officials offered parallel guidance. Clerk Russell stated, “Please know that we will never harass you or threaten you with arrest for payments related to jury duty,” and added, “Please also be assured that the Clerk's office will never contact you by phone or initiate an email to ask you to send money or provide your personal information. We never process payments over the phone.” Florida residents were advised to contact their sheriff’s office reporting line at 407-836-HELP.

Federal guidance recommends notifying the Clerk of Court for your U.S. District Court and reporting scams to the Federal Trade Commission. National resources also remind jurors that courts will not demand payments or sensitive data by phone, text or email.

For Orange County residents, the immediate steps are simple and concrete: do not provide personal or financial information, do not open unknown email attachments, hang up, document the contact and report it to local law enforcement or the Commissioner of Jurors Office. Reporting helps investigators trace patterns and protects neighbors from the next round of fraudulent calls.