4 Signs of a Process Serving Scam

Published October 15, 2022 | By Accurate Serve Detroit

If you are an attorney or individual who has filed a civil case in Detroit, your next step is to make sure that the defendants and witnesses named in your case are properly served with the case documents, including a court summons.

Michigan Process Server Requirements

Here in Michigan, there is no official process server certification program or policy. Instead, Michigan has established just two requirements for anyone serving process in the state. Any process server in Michigan must:

Be a legally competent adult
Not be a party to (or a corporate party officer) to the case being served

It should be no surprise that Michigan’s lax regulation of process servers has resulted in a wide variety of processed serving scams in the state.

If you’re looking to hire a process server in the state of Michigan, be on the lookout for these four signs that you are dealing with a scam server:

They request full payment upfront

While it’s customary to require a deposit upfront to deliver the process, a server requesting full payment upfront is a red flag. This is because there’s really no way to know what the full price for the service is going to be upfront. Some process recipients are easy to locate, while others may take multiple service attempts and extensive research, which adds to the expense of service. Paying some or the full amount before any service is provided is a great way to get scammed.

They don’t ask for any background information on the process recipient(s)

Any reputable process server is going to have a set of questions to ask you about the process recipient(s). This will include basic demographic information like names, addresses, phone numbers, and employers, along with specific questions about their interests, hobbies, and routines.

You can’t get in touch with them easily after the payment

A professional process server should have a phone dedicated to handling service requests, where they can be reached during certain business hours (or at least return calls promptly). Scam process servers will typically be quick to answer your calls…until they get your money. Then they seem to fall off the face of the earth and become quite difficult to reach. Other warning signs to look out for are a generic voicemail greeting not specific to their process serving business when you call and no dedicated office location.

They can’t provide verifiable references

You should always ask for references before hiring a process server…but that’s not enough. You actually need to contact each of those references and verify the server’s experience with that past client. Use your judgment and common sense here, because scam servers will sometimes give you contact information for their friends or family members that will vouch for them, but it’s all a sham. Trust your gut, make the calls, and don’t be afraid to say no if things don’t seem right.

The Best Process Servers in Detroit

If you want to hire the best process servers in Detroit without the risk of getting scammed, look no further than Accurate Serve®. Our servers are trained to provide professional servers, prompt turnaround, and court-filed proof of service for all jobs. Give us a call at (313) 385-3703 or send us a work requests online to get started today.