Consumer Advice
Your wits will serve you against process server scams
I recently received an email from a reader who let me know she received a call from someone claiming to be a process server. He informed her she would be served on a certain day between 3 and 5 p.m. She wanted to check with me to see if this was legitimate. A process server is someone who notifies an individual or company that an action has been taken against them in a court of law.
If you receive a call from a process server be careful. Posing as a process server could be the perfect cover for a scam artist to gain entry into your home, where they may perpetrate a crime. Most people are not sure of the legal process and don’t know what to do if served with papers. This is a perfect opportunity for scammers to take advantage of you.
If you are contacted by someone claiming to be a process server, watch for these signs: Process servers will never ask you for money, they are paid by the party hiring them to deliver the documents. If a process server claims they can get the case dismissed if you pay them, this is clearly false. Process servers are paid to deliver documents to the recipient, period. I called a local process server and asked them if they would call ahead of time to serve someone, they said they might so this wasn’t unusual.
If you have reason to believe this call may be a scam, here’s a couple of things you can do to protect yourself. Get the case number and call the courthouse to see if there is any pending litigation filed against you. If you aren’t comfortable with someone coming to your door, tell them to call the sheriff’s office to get a deputy to show up with them to deliver the papers. Chances are if this is truly a scam, there is no way the crook wants law enforcement showing up with them to aid in the scam.
I did call the sheriff’s office to ask if they would accommodate such a request. I was told that while it wasn’t likely a deputy would show up to serve papers, they agreed that a scammer would probably not bother to harass someone who wasn’t an easy mark. So while I could not tell the reader it was not legitimate, at least now she knows how to protect herself.