State warns public of jury duty phone scam

The Montana Department of Justice’s Office of Consumer Protection is receiving reports of fraudsters posing as law enforcement trying to scam Montanans out of thousands of dollars by calling people claiming there is a warrant for their arrest because they missed jury duty.

The scammers are directing people to go the bank, withdraw cash, and then deposit the funds into bitcoin machines or ATMs, such as Coinstar kiosks, and not to tell anyone what they are doing. The scammers also have personal information, such as name and address, on the people they are targeting.

Currently, all reports have come from Lewis and Clark County. Consumer protection investigators were able to stop two people from falling victim to the scam over the phone and stopped another instance Thursday at a bitcoin machine in Helena.

The Office of Consumer Protection encourages people targeted by these scammers to hang up the phone and report it to investigators using the online reporting form at https://go.helenair.com/dpiaui or by calling 1-800-481-6896 or 406-444-4500. To avoid falling victim to the scam, look out for the following red flags:

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