LUMBERTON — The clerk of Superior Court is warning Robeson County residents to ignore any phone calls by people claiming to work in that office who are calling to try to get money by credit card payment over the phone.

Renae Hunt, the clerk of Superior Court, said she has received several phone calls from residents who said they were called and threatened with legal action if they did not pay money by credit card over the phone. As one example, Hunt said, a woman called her office and said a caller had threatened to put her son in jail if she did not make a $700 payment.

Hunt said her office would never make phone calls to residents asking for a payment over the telephone.

“It’s par for the course for the times we are living in,” she said. “I have gotten several emails from the Attorney General’sl Office about similar scams.”

Hunt advises anyone who receives such a phone call to call the state Attorney General’s Office at 1-877-566-7226 or the Robeson County Sheriff’s Office at 910-671-3100 to report the solicitation.