Phone and Email Scams Involving Courts Still Occurring

The public is again being warned to be on the lookout for scams involving individuals purporting to be either court officials or sheriff’s deputies.

State Judiciary spokeswoman Tammy Mori said the department continues to hear of reports of people receiving emails from someone claiming to be a bailiff and instructing the recipient to click on a link.

In at least one instance, doing so caused the person’s computer to crash.

Mori said people should not respond to such messages.

“In general, the public will not be contacted by the Hawaii State Judiciary for official business by email and we do not summon people to court electronically,” she said.

Anyone receiving a suspicious email can contact the state Judiciary Public Affairs Office at pao@courts.hawaii.gov or call (808) 539-4909.

More information is available at the Judiciary website.

In a related matter, Department of Public Safety spokeswoman Toni Schwartz said that agency continues to receive reports of people impersonating sheriff deputies.

The nationwide scam which began early this month involves someone calling people at random and claiming that there is a warrant for their arrest because of a failure to show up for jury duty or a court appearance.

The scammer says they will come and arrest the person unless they pay a fee by phone to have the warrant cleared.

“We want to remind the public that sheriffs do not and will not call people about warrants having to do with jury duty or solicit the purchase of anything,” Schwartz said. “If you receive a call matching this scam please alert our Sheriff Division by calling (808) 586-1352.”