Fake court summons, jury duty failure to appear, or arrest warrant scam — fraudulent email impersonating a court, law enforcement agency, or legal authority claiming the recipient has a pending arrest warrant, failed to appear for jury duty, or has been named in a lawsuit — directing them to click a link to pay a fine, call a number to avoid arrest, or provide Social Security number and bank account details to settle the case — an authority-impersonation fraud that exploits fear of legal consequences and criminal prosecution to extract urgent payments or steal personal financial information

Authority-impersonation scam emails claiming the recipient has a pending arrest warrant, failed to appear for jury duty, has been subpoenaed by a grand jury, or has been named in a civil or federal lawsuit — directing them to pay a fine, call a number to avoid arrest, or provide personal and financial information to resolve the legal matter. Legal authority scams are among the most psychologically effective fraud types due to the acute fear of arrest and legal consequences. Key facts: (1) Legal impersonation scams are consistently in the top-5 most damaging consumer fraud categories — the FTC and FBI IC3 report hundreds of millions in annual losses; the average victim pays $1,000–$5,000 before recognizing the scam; (2) "Jury duty warrant" scams are a specific high-volume variant: scammers claim the target missed jury duty (plausible since many people do forget or ignore jury summonses) and have an outstanding warrant — then offer to "resolve" it for a fine paid via gift card, wire transfer, or Zelle; (3) The arrest warrant variant is the most urgent-feeling — the threat of imminent police arrival at your home or workplace drives victims to pay immediately without verifying; law enforcement and courts universally confirm they do NOT contact citizens about warrants via email or phone demanding immediate payment; (4) Legal scams increasingly request SSN and financial details to "confirm your identity" before "processing" the case resolution — the identity data is separately monetized for credit fraud even if the payment portion fails; (5) Legitimate courts send legal notices only via postal mail with official letterhead, electronic filing notices only to registered PACER users for existing cases, and jury summonses only via USPS — never via email with payment links or phone calls demanding immediate payment. Warning signs: email claiming arrest warrant or jury duty failure to appear, payment required to avoid criminal charges, SSN or bank account requested to "resolve" a court matter, urgent deadline to avoid arrest.