Woman shares experience about disturbing threats to put her in jail
Joanne Bright-Barnes said on a Thursday afternoon
By Margaret Kavanagh
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PORTSMOUTH, Virginia (WTKR) — A 67-year-old Portsmouth woman got a disturbing phone call from someone claiming to be law enforcement, making threats to put her in jail.
The News 3 Investigative Team continues to follow through on the stories of those dealing with scammers in the community by sharing their stories.
Joanne Bright-Barnes said on a Thursday afternoon, the caller said there are two warrants out for her arrest for not showing up for jury duty.
Bright-Barnes said the caller referenced her age and questioned if she forgot about it.
She said the caller then got fresh with her over the phone, telling her to stop talking, listen and pay $4,000.
She said he told her she would be arrested today if she didn’t pay the fines and then sent her a text message showing what looked like a warrant for her arrest for failure to appear, contempt of court and failure of civil duties.
Bright-Barnes said she was nervous because he knew so much about her personal information.
The News 3 Investigative Team called the number that called Bright-Barnes. It stated that this was a Google number and then transferred us to another phone number that had a message from what sounded like someone from law enforcement.
We left a message, but no one called us back. We tried again, but the number was disconnected.
Previously, the News 3 Investigative Team met with the FBI to talk about scams in the community.
Scott Zmudzinski, the Assistant Special Agent in Charge of the Norfolk Office, said, “I think one of the key things that the American public can do is to be aware of what they’re doing, who they’re interacting with, question every contact that they have.”
He said this is especially important when it comes to financial transactions.
He said it is devastating to see the elderly, teens or anyone in the community fall victim to these scammers.
Bright-Barnes wanted to share her story to make other people aware of the issues and let them know not to believe everything people tell you.
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