Scammers are taking advantage of this sense of civic responsibility in a new trend of identity theft schemes. U.S. District Judge David Herndon in Illinois is cautioning residents after there were reports of calls that seemingly come from local courthouses or law enforcement agencies notifying them of missed jury duty assignments, The Associated Press reported.

Criminals are calling residents, claiming they missed jury duty and are subject to a fine before attempting to collect their personal information. To perpetuate this telephone scam, criminals are using sophisticated methods to assume the identity of court or law enforcement officials using what is called caller ID spoofing. This technology allows scammers on the other line to modify their voice and even recreate the background noise that could be heard at a police station to fool residents.

Not only do these criminals try to collect payment for fake fines, they also make an effort to obtain personal and financial data from their victims, including Social Security and credit card numbers. As a scammer tries to extract pieces of useful information from the first instance of contact, they can record the conversation to play it back and reiterate it during a second call to make their scheme more convincing. Those targeted by identity thieves for this particular jury duty scam tend to be older because they are more trusting and responsive to calls of civic duty.