Utah victims lose hundreds of thousands to jury duty phone scams cost

FARMINGTON, Utah (KUTV) — A threatening voicemail caught KUTV 2News photojournalist Jeremy Dubas completely off guard near the end of his shift.

The call came from a man claiming to be Sgt. Tyson Young with the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office in Nebraska. The caller told Dubas he had missed jury duty for a major case and that meant jail time.

Dubas, who grew up in Nebraska, has lived in Utah for more than two years. But the caller seemed prepared, saying the subpoena went to an old address and was signed for by someone else on his behalf.

“It’s such a different scam from what I’m used to watching out for,” said Dubas. “I’m still on the phone with him and he said, ‘Okay, so we need to get a payment so we can freeze the warrant for your arrest so you don’t get arrested.’”

About 40 minutes into the call, Dubas sent roughly $200 through PayPal. Within an hour, he realized it was a scam.

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“I’m very on high alert when I get an email, when I get a phone call, when I get a text message,” he explained. “This one just caught me off guard.”

Investigators with the Davis County Sheriff’s Office here in Utah said Jeremy Dubas is far from alone.

Megan Reid, a detective with Davis County, said the Sheriff’s Office gets at least 30 reports of jury duty scams a day. And Utah is losing a significant amount of money to them.

“Hundreds of thousands,” Reid said. “Just last week, we had a victim lose $12,000. That was their entire savings in that account.”

And it’s not limited to just older adults. Scammers target victims across all age groups, using real detective names and spoofing actual law enforcement phone numbers. They pull personal details from online sources, adding legitimacy to their predatory calls.

The feeling of shame after falling victim often keeps people from reporting what happened.

“This just happened last week,” said Reid. “He drove several cities away to a cryptocurrency ATM that the scammers knew didn’t have warning signs. He lost everything in his savings and hadn’t told his family yet. The money was gone within two minutes.”

In Dubas’ case, PayPal was able to refund his money. Now, he hopes his experience helps warn others.

“I felt dumb for not seeing the signs right away,” said Dubas, later adding, “If it seems like it’s serious and needs to be handled immediately, that’s when you’re supposed to pause and think about what’s really going on.”

The scam is being investigated at the federal level because of how much money is being lost. In some cases, it is possible to recover funds, but investigators said time is critical.

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