Scam artists are incredibly creative and resourceful when it comes to swindling people out of their hard-earned money. They have to be. After all, once people are on to a particular scam, scammers have to change it in order to effectively victimize the innocent and take advantage of the unaware.
One particular scam that’s starting to make the rounds, and that you should be aware of, is people posing as process servers. That’s right—scam artists are now pretending to be collection agents, or other legal authorities, to scare people into giving up critical personal and financial information. They’re persistent too, harassing people incessantly with phone calls at all hours of the day, and even showing up at the homes and jobs of the marks they have in their sites and “serving” them with totally fake -but nonetheless convincing- legal documents.
Being “served” by someone who’s convinced you that they’re a legitimate process server can be a frightening, stressful, and embarrassing situation to find yourself in. The successful scam artist knows that many people will say everything and anything to get out of what they think is a real predicament. When scammers sense that “I’ll-do-anything-to-get-out-of-this” pheromone emanating from their prey, they’ll say that the impending legal action can be avoided if they’re given credit card, bank account, or other important personal details.
If you find yourself in a horrible situation like this, it’s important to keep a level head and not let your emotions cloud your judgment. The information that you should not give up to anybody claiming to be a process server is the same information that you should not give up online. A real, licensed process server will never ask for your bank account information under any circumstance. If you are served, you have the right to contact law enforcement, financial institutions, lender, or credit union in order to verify the veracity of the process you’re being served with.
Don’t allow yourself to be victimized by this new scam. It only works if you’re taken by surprise, but if we all spread the word we can take the “shock-and-awe” factor out of process server scams. As always, if you’re in doubt, get in touch with a reputable and accredited professional process server.
