By BRIAN WALKER

Staff Writer

The phone call had Phyllis Brown crying.

The man on the line identifying himself by the name of an actual Kootenai County Sheriff's Office employee informed the Post Falls woman she was in contempt of court for not showing up for jury duty.

Brown was recently called to jury duty, but was later dismissed. She figured maybe she didn't handle the process quite right, making her wonder if the call was valid.

"I was so upset that I was in tears," she said.

The caller said she needed to go to a Walmart kiosk and wire transfer $1,000 to rectify the situation.

"I was on phone for an hour," she said. "He was very convincing and professional. He knew a lot of details, including my daughter's name."

Brown said she was about to do as she was instructed when her husband called the police department and the sheriff's office to learn it was a scam.

"I went through a lot of stress and anguish," she said.

Brown said she has tried to keep up on all the latest phone scams, including those claiming to be the IRS and sending money for a lost relative. But the jury duty call had her convinced since she actually recently had been notified to possibly serve.

Brown said she generally doesn't answer calls from numbers she doesn't recognize, but did so in this case because a neighbor is applying for a job and said she could be getting a call about it. She said it had a 208 area code.

Dennis Stinebaugh, KCSO spokesman, said his agency has received several complaints about such a scam.

"Many of the scams involve telling the victim that they will be arrested if they don’t send money to a bail bondsman," he said. "Scammers have recently claimed local citizens have missed jury duty and will be arrested. The scammer then holds 'phone court' and claims to reduce your fines or reduce a jail sentence if you send them money. Don't do it."

If residents have any questions about the legitimacy of a call from law enforcement, they should hang up and contact their local agency directly for verification, Stinebaugh said.

"We don't ask for money or gift cards over the phone," he said.

Stinebaugh said phone scammers are difficult to catch since many are out of the sheriff's office's jurisdiction.

Other recent phone scams have plagued the area and are constant, police say.

Jared Reneau, Coeur d'Alene Police spokesman, said his agency was alerted a resident was told he had a warrant and needed to send money in the form of a gift card.

"The caller stayed on the phone while the male drove to both the Walgreens in Hayden and then to the store in Coeur d'Alene," Reneau said. "Eventually, the victim was alerted to the scam by employees at both Walgreens locations."