Check whether a North Carolina (NC) court-payment demand is a scam
check_court_scamIs this court-payment demand a scam? Assesses a contact someone received against known North Carolina (NC) court-scam patterns.
Use this when someone describes being contacted about jury duty they missed, unpaid court costs, a warrant, or a bond — and being asked to pay. Gather what they can tell you and pass it in; every field is optional, and a partial description still gets an assessment.
THE ASSESSMENT IS DETERMINISTIC, NOT A JUDGEMENT CALL. Upstream rules decide the severity; you are not being asked to estimate risk yourself. Report what comes back.
severity 2 = "Matches known scam patterns" (LIKELY SCAM). A payment method NC
courts never accept, a jury-duty demand above the $50 statutory penalty, or a cold
contact that also carries a payment demand or arrest threat.
severity 1 = "Matches some known scam patterns" (USE CAUTION).
severity 0 does NOT mean the contact is legitimate. It means none of the
patterns this tool checks for were present in what was described. Say exactly that —
never "this looks legitimate", never "you're fine". Someone reading a false all-clear
may send money. The safe next step is always to verify independently through the
court, using a number they look up themselves.
Pass the ids listed in the parameter types verbatim — they are a fixed vocabulary.
behavioral_flags accepts any of: threatened_immediate_arrest, claimed_to_be_official,
used_target_personal_details, spoofed_caller_id, gave_callback_number,
pressured_to_stay_on_line, asked_to_stay_on_phone_during_purchase,
requested_ssn_or_financial_info, transferred_to_supervisor_or_clerk,
background_noise_office_or_radio, asked_to_meet_in_person, after_hours_contact,
demanded_secrecy.
raw_description is anything else they were told, in their own words. It is used for
the assessment and to derive category tags; the text itself is not stored.
IF THEY GAVE A CASE OR CITATION NUMBER, caseLookup.status comes back "pending" —
this tool does not fetch the record. Call lookup_court_case with that number to
check whether it is real, and read the two answers together: a demand referencing a
case that does not exist is strong evidence of a scam, and a real case number does NOT
make the payment demand legitimate (scammers cite real numbers).
Always surface facts (what NC courts actually do) and reporting (where to report).
If they already sent money, point them to the FBI IC3 link in reporting.
WHEN SEVERITY IS 1 OR 2, ASK THEM TO REPORT IT. ask_them_to_report carries the ask
and the reason: reports are what show which scams are running in which NC counties
right now, so the next person who checks gets a current warning. Their minute protects
someone else. Make it an offer — if they decline, drop it. At severity 0 there is no
such field and you must not ask, because nothing has been established as a scam.
Every link you pass on — this one and the NCDOJ / FTC / IC3 ones — must keep its
https:// prefix so it is clickable. reporting.court_delta.markdown is already
formatted for that; use it verbatim rather than retyping the domain.
reporting.court_delta.url is a scam-trend tracker, NOT a law-enforcement report —
never present it as one, or as a substitute for the NCDOJ / FTC / IC3 routes.
Never asks for or transmits a name or phone number. A de-identified record — claim type, channel, county, payment method, flags, amount, severity — is stored so scam trends can be tracked. NC only. Informational, not legal advice.
Input Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
| county | No | ||
| claim_type | No | ||
| amount_demanded | No | ||
| contact_channel | No | ||
| raw_description | No | ||
| behavioral_flags | No | ||
| case_or_citation_number | No | ||
| payment_method_requested | No |
Output Schema
| Name | Required | Description | Default |
|---|---|---|---|
No arguments | |||