Officials from the Arizona Superior Court in Pima County are warning residents to keep an ear out for phony phone calls seemingly coming from its main phone number.

Scammers are targeting unsuspecting residents with false claims about compromised Social Security information or phony warrants, for instance, and then demanding immediate payment to resolve fake situations.   

Judge Kyle A. Bryson, presiding Superior Court judge, said scammers have impersonated him by name. In one case he described as “heartbreaking,” someone cheated a woman on a fixed income out of several hundred dollars.

“Someone had called her, had used my name, told her she had failed to report for jury duty and a warrant had been issued for her arrest,” said Bryson. “She was told she could avoid being arrested by first giving them some money and they went through the process of explaining to her how to do that and then she came to the court to see me to beg me not to throw her in jail.”

Bryson said courts will never contact a person by telephone and demand sensitive information or immediate payment of a bail or a fine for example.