Scammers will do just about anything to get your personal information or your money, including pretending to be law enforcement. In fact, there’s an old scam in which the caller claims he’s contacting you because you failed to report for jury duty.

Here’s how the scam goes: You get an out-of-the-blue call from someone who says you failed to show up for jury duty and now there’s a warrant for your arrest, but you can clear up the trouble right now if you “verify” your personal information, such as birth date and Social Security number.

The scammer might go even further and demand you pay up; he’ll say if you give your credit-card number or buy a prepaid card and share the account number with him, the problem will go away. Given the dire choice between giving in or going to jail, many victims are caught off guard and go along to defuse the situation.

The jury-duty scam has been around since at least 2005, but people continue to get calls. This week several people in Cumberland County received the call from someone claiming to be from the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office stating they had missed jury duty and they needed to go to CVS and get a prepaid card and send to them.

Fortunately most people recognized it to be a scam and reported to the Sheriff’s Office, but not everyone has been so lucky. Some have lost hundreds to the jury-duty scam.

So how can you avoid falling victim? Remember these tips to avoid being the victim:

• Courts do not call consumers about jury duty. Notices about jury duty will come by mail. Hang up on anyone who claims to be calling about jury service.

• Courts do not ask people to provide personal information over the phone, so no legitimate caller will ask for it. You will never be asked for your Social Security number, credit-card numbers or any other sensitive information by court officers or law enforcement.

• Courts will not call consumers asking them to pay money for missing jury duty, so do not send money to any caller claiming to be from the court system. As noted, any communications about jury duty—even if you missed your assigned time to show up—will come by mail.

If you are in doubt as to whether something is a scam, call the Cumberland County Sheriff’s Office at (931) 484-6176 BEFORE you decide to send the money. Once the money is sent, it is usually too late.