Snohomish County officials want the public to know if they receive a call from anyone telling them they owe money for failing to report for jury duty, don’t fall for it – it’s a scam.

Employees in the Snohomish County Clerk’s Office and in Superior Court have received nearly a dozen calls in the last few weeks from people who’ve been victims of the scam. The caller tells the victim they must immediately pay a fine to avoid issuance of an arrest warrant for failure to appear for jury duty. A couple of victims said they were contacted via email and not phone.

Anyone who receives a call or email like this should call 911 immediately. Snohomish County officials also ask victims to call the county’s jury management office at 425-388-3386 to report the incident.

“Jury duty plays a vital role in our justice system,” Snohomish County Clerk Sonya Kraski said. “It’s reprehensible that someone would play on people’s fears of not honoring their civic duty as a way to get money from them.”

Employees from the Clerk’s Office and Superior Court never ask jurors for payments of fines, nor do they ask past or prospective jurors for financial details such as credit card numbers, bank account numbers, or Social Security numbers, Kraski said.

Approximately 53,000 people were summoned for jury duty in Snohomish County in 2013.

For additional information about this scam, please contact Snohomish County Clerk Sonya Kraski at 425-388-3430 or Sonya.kraski@snoco.org or Superior Court Administrator Bob Terwilliger at 425-388-3798 or bob.terwilliger@snoco.org.