NATCHEZ — Adams County Court Judge John Hudson said Monday he believes telephone scammers are using his office to solicit money from local residents.

Hudson said he’s heard from multiple Natchez residents, the latest one on Monday, reporting strange telephone messages.

“The person (Monday) told me it was a recorded message saying it was my office calling, and that they had a civil case filed against them,” Hudson said. “The message tells them to call an 800 number to pay a fine and resolve the matter.”

Hudson said he heard similar complaints from other Natchez residents nearly two weeks ago.

“That message told them that they had missed their jury service and that they could avoid arrest if they send money to an address,” Hudson said. “No court would ever call and ask someone to send them money, so this is obviously some sort of scam.”

Hudson said he obtained information from the resident who the callers tried to scam two weeks ago and turned it over to the Adams County Sheriff’s Office.

Hudson said he was still trying to work with the resident who was called Monday to get the number left in that message to turn over to law enforcement officials.

The judge urged anyone in the area to avoid following instructions in any sort of call from his office asking for personal information or money.

“No calls like that would ever come out of our offices, so we want everyone to know those are not real,” Hudson said. “It looks like in both instances, the people they called were older, so I’m hoping they’re not targeting anyone in particular.”

To report this or any other potential telephone scam to the ACSO, call 601-442-2752.