A recent phone scam has been circulating where the caller is posing as Commander Dave Murray, the Chief of Police for the City of Camarillo and Commander Rick Murray from the Ventura Police Department.
When these calls are answered the caller identifies himself as Commander Murray and tells them they have missed a jury appointment and requests personal and confidential information.
If the call is not answered the caller leaves a voicemail message stating his name is Commander Dave Murray calling about a legal matter and requests a call back at (805) 628-7801, which is not a valid number. This number leads to either the fraudulent caller or a voicemail stating his name is Commander Rick Murray with the Ventura Police Department and requests a call back number.
The Camarillo Police Department wants to warn everyone that this is a scam and not to call the number back. Several email and phone scams now are widespread throughout the United States, falsely claiming that the intended victims have court cases or other legal issues pending and must pay a fine or provide private information.
In the calls and emails, recipients are pressured to provide confidential information, potentially leading to identity theft and fraud. These calls and emails, which threaten recipients with fines and jail time if they do not comply are fraudulent and are not connected with the Camarillo Police Department or the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office.
County courts do not require anyone to provide any sensitive information in a telephone call or email. Most contact between a county court and prospective juror will be through the U.S. mail, and any phone contact by legitimate court officials will not include requests for Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, or any other sensitive information – nor will they ever ask you to pay any fine with a gift card.
Jury duty is a vital civic responsibility and should be taken seriously by all citizens; however, it is a crime for anyone to falsely represent themselves as a court or police official. The Camarillo Police Department and Ventura County Sheriff’s Office takes these types of crimes seriously.
Persons receiving such a telephone call or email should not provide the requested information. For any questions regarding jury service you can go to the following web page for official ways to contact Ventura County Courts: http://www.ventura.courts.ca.gov/juryservice.
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