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In New Scam, Callers Claim to Be From Maine Courthouse

Another phone scam is targeting Mainers’ personal information and credit card numbers.

Mary Ann Lynch is with Maine’s court system; she says this scam is especially convincing, because the call appears to come from the courts.

“The caller ID spoof was using a telephone number from one of our courthouses, and that’s why we found out, because several people called our courthouse to verify,” she says.

Lynch says the court system would not call people asking people for personal information like social security numbers, dates of birth or credit card numbers.

“You should know immediately that it is not a call from the Maine courts,” she says. “You can always call the local courthouse to verify it, but my advice is if someone calls you asking for this kind of information, you should just hang up.”

She says scammers are currently claiming that the people they’re calling have unpaid traffic tickets, but it could be unpaid fines, failure to show up for jury duty, or one of a number of other claims.

People who receive questionable calls are advised not to give any information to the person on the other end. Lynch says people can call their local courthouse for confirmation if they’re uncertain about whether they have unpaid fines of any kind.

Nora is originally from the Boston area but has lived in Chicago, Michigan, New York City and at the northern tip of New York state. Nora began working in public radio at Michigan Radio in Ann Arbor and has been an on-air host, a reporter, a digital editor, a producer, and, when they let her, played records.