ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – The United States District Court for the District of New Mexico has recently been notified of individuals being targeted in a court-related scam. The targets have been told they failed to respond to a subpoena issued by a U.S. District Judge and that a warrant for their arrest has been or will be issued. The scammer may ask for personal identifiers or for immediate payment of fines with the assurance this will resolve the warrant. The scammers may use the name of an actual judge and purport to be a member of local law enforcement or staff from the Clerk’s Office.

The U.S. District Court will never ask for sensitive information in an unsolicited phone call and will not assess a fine or penalty for failure to respond to a subpoena or for failure to appear in federal court, without first having the person appear before a judge.

It is a crime for anyone to falsely represent himself or herself as a federal court official and such an offense is taken very seriously by the federal judiciary. Persons receiving such a telephone call should not provide the requested information or pay any fines and should contact the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) at (505) 889-1300, select option #1 when prompted, to report the incident. In the District of New Mexico, the individual may also contact the U.S. District Court at 505-348-2000 to verify that there are no matters pending before the federal court in their name, or visit our website https://www.nmd.uscourts.gov/federal-court-related-scams to learn more about court-related scams.

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