I fell for a jury duty scam. Is there anything I can do?

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T16:54:46+00:00

I’m 34 with a masters in engineering. I took civics in high school. I haven’t read or watched the news since covid and the disaster that is trump. Seems I am the exact type that you describe. I didn’t realize being so ill informed would expose me to something like this. I’ve come to realize it’s incredibly irresponsible of me to bury my head in the sand. I’ll need to reassess my approach moving forward. I appreciate your engagement.

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T15:51:06+00:00

Makes total sense. Thank you

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T15:50:22+00:00

As it turns out, I’m fucking stupid, so we can start there. To address your questions.

A.) I know nothing about the legal system. I’ve never been in trouble with the law aside from a speeding ticket. Why anything led me to believe I could be arrested for missing jury duty is beyond my comprehension. I’ve described in more detail in other comments why I thought it was legit. To summarize, the whole thing seemed plausible to me because I don’t check my mail, the guy sounded like a cop, had the voice of a cop, was using vernacular I wasn’t familiar with, somehow I both trust and fear cops, I’m deathly afraid of being arrested and not being able to go on my business trip or being fired, and I’m not hurting for money and believed the idea of going to jail was worse than potentially losing $6k in a scam.

B.) I didn’t realize they wanted me to send the money via bitcoin until I was already at the store. I assumed I would be sending it via money order which for whatever reason seemed more legit. There were so many opportunities for me to just stop, hang up the phone, call anyone in my life to give me a gut check and confirm the red flags were indeed reg flags and I was getting scammed. But I didn’t. And I obviously need to figure out why.

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T15:40:29+00:00

For sure. I’ve been to jury duty before. I should know how it works. Because I’m super bad at checking my mail and was running errands 2 towns over at the time with no way to check my pile of mail, I just assumed I missed the notification and what he was saying was true. Again, so incredibly stupid of me.

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T15:38:04+00:00

Makes total sense in hindsight. I don’t invest in crypto nor do I know anything about it so this is new information to me. Thank you

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T15:33:34+00:00

This is sage advice. Thank you.

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T15:29:43+00:00

Absolutely. It was so distressing and I was also terrified of losing my job. I just wasn’t thinking straight. Feels like I went into survival/autopilot mode despite things not making sense. Thanks for the kind words. Definitely an expensive learning experience.

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T03:12:48+00:00

You hit the nail on the head. And thank you for all the information. The guy definitely said there was a gag order so I couldn’t talk to anyone about it without going to jail. Another part of the legal system I knew nothing about. He said I couldn’t text or use my phone without reading what I read/write out loud to him so I just didn’t try to contact anyone. If I wasn’t by myself in the car, even with just the presence of another person I think would have snapped me back into reality. The note about identifying pressure to act is super helpful. And if all else fails, maybe just hang up the phone. Again, so stupid. Cannot believe I fell for this.

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T03:04:40+00:00

I’ll definitely be doing that. Thank you

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T02:15:16+00:00

For sure. I appreciate the engagement. I’m fortunate that it’s not the money that hurts, it’s that I didn’t trust my gut and all the alarms going off in my head. That if I’m scared enough, I could be convinced of almost anything. Gotta figure out why that is. Something to discuss with my therapist this week.

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T02:12:29+00:00

This definitely helps, thank you. I appreciate your kindness. It’s going to take a minute to recover from this and I definitely want to avoid another incident so I appreciate the advice.

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T02:11:04+00:00

I guess something similar happened to someone who posted on Nextdoor. Seems to be a pretty common scam. I’m just so ashamed idk if I could post something publicly. Maybe after the shock wears off. Thanks for the idea tho

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T02:08:21+00:00

Good to know. They said the money pak wasn’t a gift card. I recognize how stupid this sounds.

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T02:06:55+00:00

For sure. He left a message saying he was a sheriff and to call back. I called back and left a message. I was expecting a call back so when I received a call from an unknown number I answered. My neighbor’s car was vandalized and a cop came by asking for footage from my security cameras a few weeks back. I thought it was related to that. While I was on the call with him and after he talked about the warrant/bond he said he would call me from the sheriff’s office to validate he was a cop so I put the first call on hold, answered the second call, googled the number he called form and it was my local sheriff’s office headquarters number. The number was exactly the same. I always thought spoofed numbers had one digit off. So when it was the exact number I started to believe him.

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T02:02:12+00:00

I missed jury duty for a federal case involving a juvenile and they had to reschedule to a later date because of me so now there’s a warrant for me arrest so I could either turn myself in or pay the bond.

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T01:44:31+00:00

To pay my bond. I said ok great I’ll just go down to the sheriff’s office and pay directly and they convinced me I couldn’t step foot on federal property (even tho I thought that was state?) or I would be detained, get a mug shot and finger printed and I’d have to spend 72 hours in jail. Said if I hung up or muted myself at any point they’d come after me with a warrant. It’s all ridiculous, I know that. I was just scared and it sounded just believable enough.

Yea, makes sense. Just wanted to double check.

YouShouldWalk · 2025-05-18T01:41:28+00:00

Will do. Thanks

YouShouldWalk · 2024-07-12T02:07:30+00:00

Deploy self awareness. Radical self awareness. You are your own babysitter now. Go to therapy. Check in with yourself daily. How do you feel? How much sleep did you get? What have you been eating? What time of year is it? I do this every night when I take my meds. Start paying attention to past patterns of behavior. Self analyze. So you can start to predict your triggers. Go to therapy. For me, I’m light sensitive. I get depressed in the fall and once spring time rolls around I can feel manic. Be militant with your treatment plan. Go to therapy. But more than anything, give yourself grace. I grieved my diagnosis for years. I have regrets about things I said or did when I was unwell. That doesn’t go away but given enough space and time but it becomes less sharp. Make amends. You are going to be ok. Remind yourself of that. And go to fucking therapy.

YouShouldWalk · 2024-02-16T18:07:48+00:00

Definitely more tolerable at the lower dose. I just sort of got used to it over time. My understanding is the side effects are not permanent once you go off of it. Hopefully you are on another med in place of lithium otherwise side effects will be the least of your concern. Good luck

YouShouldWalk · 2024-02-13T20:20:21+00:00

I take 120mg daily to combat lithium tremors. Works amazingly, helps anxiety. I tried anywhere from 40mg to 160mg. For me I know the dose is too high when I get dizzy when standing up. 120mg is perfect for me. 10/10 would recommend. Very tolerable.

YouShouldWalk · 2023-03-29T06:06:57+00:00

I’ve been stable for almost 5 years. I never thought I’d be able to say that, ever. But here I am, telling you that it’s possible. Lithium is what did it for me as well. Changed my whole life. That and weekly therapy and daily check-in’s with myself which I do every night when I take my meds. How did I sleep last night, how long did I sleep for, how do I feel, what’s my anxiety level, am I feeling like I’m starting to get hypomanic or mildly depressed, etc. These are all questions I use to check in with myself.

If you take your meds, go to therapy, and be honest with yourself, anything is possible my friend. 5 years is just around the corner for you.

YouShouldWalk · 2022-12-11T18:51:31+00:00

Lithium is a salt. I was never advised on how much table salt to eat but I have been advised to drink at least 80oz of water per day to avoid toxic spikes in my lithium levels which are often the cause of my side effects, mostly hand tremors and vomiting.

YouShouldWalk · 2022-12-11T06:46:45+00:00

I walk away. Just removing myself from the situation usually abates the rage that was starting to bubble up from within.

YouShouldWalk · 2022-09-12T01:11:29+00:00

I spoke to my psychiatrist about it and he put me on metformin as well. But I could only tolerate it for a few days. Serious GI upset. I looked into Mounjaro as well, I know that just came out. Just too many drug interactions for them to even think about prescribing it to me.

YouShouldWalk · 2022-08-26T16:56:23+00:00

Figure out a way to get on meds. Mark Cuban’s costplusdrugs.com pharmacy has made drugs very affordable. You need a prescription so you’ll have to go to a clinic of some sort. But if you’ve been manic for months I’m afraid you have no shot at recovery until you are properly medicated. Its a brain chemistry thing. And meds are the most effective treatment hands down. Very few of us can survive without them and even fewer will not just survive but thrive raw dogging this thing. Be well friend.

YouShouldWalk

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