A Writer's Notebook, Two-Thousand-Four-Hundred-And-Twenty-Three

In the modern era, we are all warned about potential scams, but I had a pretty unsettling experience today that I think it is worth relating.  I received a phone call from an unlisted number claiming to be with the Sheriff's Department, and asking me why I had not obeyed my jury duty summons.  I told them I hadn't received it, that this was the first I had heard about my being called to serve.  I was told that I would need to come in to the office to sign something, and that was when things started to get weird.  They told me that they needed me to drive straight to their office, that I couldn't hang up the phone and that I wasn't allowed to speak with anyone else.  At the time, I was kind of freaking out, but fortunately I had Melissa with me, who called the local police non-emergency line to check and verified it was a scam.  Thinking about it now, it seems obvious, but it is easy for me to get flustered or overwhelmed, and they were very good at keeping me on edge and a bit panicked.  Thinking about it, what makes it really chilling is the fact that they wanted me to arrive in person, not just to send them money.  That suggests some fairly disturbing plans.

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