Department of Legal Services

On October 9, 2017 one of our readers who was targeted by the “underage girl sext scam” reached out to us again because he received a call from someone claiming to be “Jason Harper” with the “Department of Legal Services.”  We don’t know for certain that this is related to the sext scam because we are beginning to see others on the Internet mention this scam.  This is the message that “Jason Harper” leaves on voicemail…

The voicemail says “This message is solely intended to reach a [name redacted].  This is Jason Harper with the Department of legal services. We’re calling to give you notification of legal documentation we have scheduled to be issued out to you.  We wanted to notify you and verify information with you prior to this service.  Unfortunately, you’re not available at this time.  If you have any questions though, any concerns pertaining to the nature of this claim, you or your representing attorney have the right to contact the claimants office directly.  The phone number is attached to your paper work for them.  That number is 888-763-5740.  Again, 888-763-5740.  It states the reference claim number 228626. Thank you. You’ve been officially notified.”

What are the red flags here that lead us to believe this is a scam?

1. There are “Department of Legal Services” all over the U.S.  The caller didn’t identify which state or city.  And when you search Google for these 4 words, Google auto-populates with it’s Google Instant feature showing that many other people are searching for those 4 words AND the word scam.
2. A Google search for the phone number 888-763-5740 turns up no association with any legal service department anywhere at all.  In fact, there is precious little information found for this number!
3. We did find this post at thisphone.us by 2 anonymous people claiming that calls from this phone number, 888-763-5740, are a scam.  One of the posted notes actually said “Claims to be the number of the “Department of Legal Services” Jason Harper called me to try and verify personal information so I could be served legal documents. Scam artists.”
4. We ran a Google search for both “Jason Harper” and “Department of Legal Services” and found many people reporting this scam on both 800Notes.com (Look at Alex’s post on April, 12, 2016),  whocalledchecker.net, and OKcaller.com BUT using other phone numbers!

Next time you get a call that sounds legal and serious, do your homework before you call back!  And spread the word with friends, family and on social media.