Scammers Impersonate Town Permitting Agents

CHATHAM – If you’ve got a project that requires a town permit from the historical commission, conservation commission, planning board or zoning board of appeals, you’ve already got plenty of details to track. Now you might have a new concern: cybercrime.

 Last Thursday, Chatham Community Development Director Katie Donovan announced that criminals are impersonating local government officials and sending fraudulent emails to people who have active land use permit applications. The technique is known as a phishing scam.

“These emails reference real permit details, including property addresses, application numbers, and the names of actual officials, to appear legitimate. Victims are then pressured to pay fabricated permit fees via wire transfer, peer-to-peer payment apps, or cryptocurrency,” the announcement reads. The scam is similar to ones happening around the country.

“It appears they are finding the information via legal notices,” Donovan said this week. In response, the town began redacting email addresses from online legal notice postings, but the department continues to hear reports of people receiving fake invoices via email.

The scam is sophisticated, but there are key ways to identify phony communications purporting to be from the town. Donovan said people should beware of unsolicited emails that request payment by wire transfer, apps like Venmo or Zelle, or in cryptocurrency. Another red flag is an email that creates urgency by threatening delays to the permit process, or one that directs the applicant to respond by email only rather than by telephone to “verify” fees.

 The phishing emails look extremely authentic, with the town seal and the correct names of real government officials, all formatted professionally. They may include an invoice in PDF format with itemized fees and payment instructions.

 Legitimate communication from the town comes from email addresses sent from the official Chatham government town domain, ending in @chatham-ma.gov. 

Donovan said the town has heard from between 10 and 15 people who have received the scam emails, “however, we are not aware of any instances where payment was made in response to the scam.” She said that she has heard of similar scams operating in Harwich, Falmouth and other Massachusetts towns.

 Anyone receiving a suspicious email purporting to be from the town is encouraged to verify the information by looking up the town department’s phone number — don’t use one listed on the suspicious email — and then call the town to find out if any fees are owed.

 Donovan said the Chatham Police Department is aware of the scam, “but as no one has come forward that they have actually paid any money, there have not been any investigations,” she said. But the town is encouraging anyone receiving a phishing scam email to report it to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center. Complaints can be filed online at www.ic3.gov, and should include the sender’s email address, the date the email was received, any phone numbers provided, the amount listed on any fraudulent invoice, the payment method requested and any bank account information the target may have been given.

 “Ultimately, we are just trying to make as many people as possible aware of this scam so that no one falls victim to it,” Donovan said.