The United States District Court for the Northern District of Indiana is warning that scammers are fraudulently using the name or title of a Judge, Clerk, or other court staff in emails and will manipulate phone calls so that authentic court phone numbers appear on your Caller ID screen, but the calls are not actually coming from the court system. Scammers also like to pretend that you are being called for jury service or issued a subpeona. Anyone receiving a legitimate court document will receive that information via physical mail. Do not click any link included in an email from an unknown sender.

Things to remember, who to call and what to do if you are contacted by a scammer:

• Do not divulge personal information or financial information to unknown callers, including those who claim to work for a government agency.
• A court will never ask for a credit/debit card number, gift card number, wire transfers or bank routing numbers over the phone or by email for any purpose.
• Do not click on links sent by an unknown sender.
• Official government emails will be sent from the uscourts.gov email address.
• A fine will never be imposed until after an individual has appeared in court and been given the opportunity to explain a failure to appear.
• Report scams to the Federal Trade Commission.

For additional information about Federal Court Scams, please visit https://www.uscourts.gov/about-federal-courts/federal-courts-public/federal-court-scams.

Residents of the Northern District of Indiana who believe they have been victims of such a scam are
encouraged to report the incident to the Federal Trade Commission.