From: Jeff Fine (COC) 
Sent: Monday, September 16, 2019 2:55 PM
To: Joseph Welty (SUP) ; Raymond Billotte (SUP) ; Byers, Dave 
Cc: Reinkensmeyer, Marcus 
Subject: FYI - New Warrant Payment Scam, Impersonating Court Officials

Judge Welty, Mr. Byers and Mr. Billotte,

Good afternoon. I hope all is well with you.

I am writing to advise of a new scam and criminal strategy that has come to our attention involving individuals pretending to be court officials. Although similar scams have existed for years, the complexity of such appears to have increased. What my team has discovered is that scammers are contacting citizens by email pretending to be court officials, advising victims that a warrant exists for their arrest and to resolve the matter by mailing a payment in the form of prepaid debit cards. The scammers are using names such as mine in their baiting email messages, attaching fake court documents and asking individuals to take pictures of the debit cards and email the images in advance of mailing. Victims are advised to mail the cards to a valid court address such as ours, lending to the perceived credibility of the process while scammers use the info from the photos to obtain funds immediately. The empty debit cards then arrive at a government office such as ours days later.

The Clerk Team here in Maricopa County is working with law enforcement to investigate and contacting media outlets to promote awareness. Please feel free to disseminate this information as you deem appropriate and contact my team or I with any questions.

Below this message is an image of a fake court document sent to victims associated with a scam as described above. Our office recently obtained it from a citizen who was targeted.

Respectfully,

Jeff Fine

Clerk of the Superior Court, Maricopa County