Court warns of scammers who target seniors, others

Phone and email scammers are targeting health-care workers, seniors, and people with limited English skills, a Florida Supreme Court spokesman said Friday. Court officials have gotten hundreds of complaints about four different scams involving the courts, spokesman Craig Waters said. Florida courts make first contact with defendants by mail or in person, not by email or phone, he said.

“Many of these people do not understand the American judicial system very well, and the con men phoning them try to scam many hundreds of dollars from them through false accusations of involvement in kidnapping, human trafficking or child pornography,” he said.

One scam targets health-care workers with an email claiming the workers are defendants in a court of appeals case regarding a “Health Care Service Violation,” Waters said.

In another scheme, relatives of people who recently died get an email claiming that someone owed their loved one money, he said. The scammers then ask the family to pay an up-front tax or fee to receive the money.

The third scam claims that people missed jury duty and must pay fines or give their Social Security numbers over the phone.

People with questions about jury duty can call their local judicial circuits or clerks of court: 407-836-2206 in Orange County; 407-742-2423 in Osceola; 407-665-4834 in Seminole; and 352-742-4160 in Lake County.

The final scam targets primarily people who do not speak much English in Broward and Dade counties, Waters said. The callers use spoofed phone numbers that look like they are calling from the Florida Supreme Court’s Offices and demand money, saying that people could face charges of kidnapping, human trafficking or possession of child pornography unless they pay up.

Anyone who gets suspicious calls or emails shouldn’t give any personal information or click on any email links or attachments, Waters said. Report the scams to local law enforcement.