The City of Madison confirmed that a nationwide phishing scam uncovered by the FBI involving the impersonation of planning and zoning officials has impacted dozens of residents, according to an April 3 press release.
The email scam relies on publicly available application information to fraudulently solicit wire peer-to-peer and cryptocurrency payments from applicants for planning and zoning permits, according to the release.
This scam has hit close to home for City of Madison planning division director Meagan Tuttle, going beyond her concern for the impact on residents.
“I was one of the people that was being impersonated,” Tuttle said. “It’s very frustrating to know your name is being used in this way, because the work we do as a city requires a deep level of public trust.”
There have been at least two people who have fallen victim to the scam and submitted payment to the city official impersonators, including one of the first people to report the scam to the City of Madison, Tuttle said.
Other people have unsuccessfully attempted to submit payment to the scammers as well, according to Tuttle.
“This scam is being perpetrated [against people who] submitted actual development proposals to the city for consideration,” Tuttle said. “The incredible level of detail in the scam notifications about the applicant’s actual proposals, we were also surprised by that.”
At this time, the party responsible for the scam has yet to be pinpointed, according to Tuttle.
Since the culpable party is still unknown, recourse for victims who submitted fraudulently solicited payments is limited to private legal and insurance avenues.
“Since we first learned about this scam, we have tried to take action to provide good information about ways that people can actually pay any fees associated with any applications that they’ve submitted,” Tuttle said. “We never accept payment on a wire transfer. We never accept payment on Bitcoin.”
Planning and zoning permit fees can be legitimately paid via the City of Madison’s official Licenses & Permits portal, in-person at City offices, a mailed check or by credit card over the phone, according to the City of Madison website.
The City of Madison encourages those concerned they may be a target of this scam to reach out to the City official they were initially in contact with directly via phone or email, according to their site.
Potential targets of the scam can verify an email’s legitimacy by confirming the sender’s address ends in “cityofmadison.com,” according to their site.
“We have taken a lot of steps as the City and within our team to make sure that we’re more proactively letting people know about this scam, but at the end of the day, we can only do so much,” Tuttle said. “That feels very frustrating.”
