‘I was panicking’: Local woman out $5K after scam caller claims she missed jury duty

A Butler County woman spoke with Channel 11’s Andrew Havranek Thursday, just a day after losing $5,000 to a federal jury duty scam.

“I’m going to try not to get emotional because I’m so angry right now, and I was so scared for my family last night for what they went through,” she said.

She did not want to show her face or share her name publicly.

She got a call from someone who said they were a federal agent. They knew her name and address.

“That’s when he proceeded to tell me there was a warrant out for my arrest because I did not show up for jury duty. A federal case,” she said.

The caller told her they’d have her go to the sheriff’s office in Butler to clear her name, but not until they told her to go there.

“He says, ‘Ma’am, if you set foot out of your car and onto government property, you will be arrested, and you could get 15 to 20 years (in prison),’” she recalled.

She said he threatened her if she hung up, texted anyone, or told anyone what she was doing. She was on the phone with the scammers for more than three hours.

He had her go to her bank and withdraw $5,000.

Then she said they told her to go to the local GetGo, where he told her to deposit it into the Bitcoin machine. It was instantly wired over to the scammers.

Then, she texted her husband that she was at the store. The scammer got mad.

“He goes, ‘That’s another thousand dollars,’” she said.

The scammer told her to go to Walgreens on New Castle Road and buy Green Dot Visa debit cards. She did, and he had her read the numbers to her.

That Walgreens has signs at the gift card section warning customers about possible scams.

“I was so beyond myself at that point because my family kept calling. I was panicking,” the woman said. “I just did whatever to get out of that, which was so, so stupid.”

Her husband called her 55 times while the scammers had her on the phone. They looked for her for hours.

She said she doesn’t want anyone else to fall for this.

Havranek: “Ultimately, your message to people is...what?

“If anything, anything sounds out of kilter, hang up,” she said.

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