If you’ve recently received a phone call about a missed jury duty summons, you may have been the target of a scam.

So says the Leelanau County Sheriff’s Office, which issued a warning on its Facebook page last week about a “recently reported scam attempt on a local citizen” that used jury duty as a threat mechanism.

According to the post, the citizen received multiple phone calls – the first at their place of work, the second on their personal phone – “reporting that they had missed jury duty and had to pay a fee to freeze a warrant that had been issued for their arrest.” The scammer identified themselves as “a former long-standing employee of the Sheriff's Office, who retired many years ago and recently passed away.” During the calls, the scammer asked the citizen “to send their Zelle or Apple Pay information to a 10 digit ‘confirmation’ number” in order to pay the fee.

“The Sheriff's Office would like to remind people that scams of this nature are happening every day, and that citizens must remain vigilant in protecting their assets,” the post noted. “Although employees of the Sheriff's Office may make contact with citizens via the telephone, these conversations will only be for the purposes of taking statements, gathering information, or making arrangements to meet in person at some location. Leelanau County Sheriff's Office personnel or other Law Enforcement Officials will never contact you via any telecommunications device, phone, email, or text in an attempt to execute an arrest warrant or collect a monetary amount related to possible fines and costs. Any contacts related to arrest warrants for you or other related family members will always be done in person.”