Town of Canton warns about email scam

By Canton Citizen

The town of Canton is warning applicants, property owners, developers, and other members of the public about fraudulent emails impersonating the town, its departments, boards, committees, or employees.

The town recently became aware of a scam attempt in which individuals are using publicly available information from the town’s website, meeting agendas, and permitting portal to contact actual applicants about their pending applications.

These fraudulent messages may contain accurate information about a project, property address, application, meeting, or applicant in an effort to appear legitimate. For example, a scammer may:

* Identify an application that is scheduled to appear before a town board or commission.

* Obtain the applicant’s name, project information, property address, or other details from public records.

* Reference an actual meeting agenda or application.

* Impersonate a town department, board, committee, or employee.

* Send a fraudulent invoice or request for payment.

* Direct the applicant to respond by email or provide banking information.

* Request a wire transfer, electronic payment, routing number, account number, or other financial information.

Applicants should be especially cautious if they receive an unexpected request to pay an additional application, approval, inspection, or permitting fee; send money by wire transfer; or provide banking, credit card or other financial information by email.

They should also be wary of any requests to send payment to an individual or an unfamiliar organization; return a completed invoice or payment confirmation to an unfamiliar email address; or to act immediately because of a dead-line or threat that an application will be delayed or denied.

Anyone receiving such an unsolicited email should not provide any information without independently verifying the request with the town. Also, residents should check the sender’s email address carefully and be sure it uses the town’s official domain: town.canton.ma.us. Scammers may create email addresses that appear similar to an official town address but are actually completely different. For example, in a recent scam attempt, the fraudulent address was planningzoning.gov@usa.com. The town does not use @usa.com for official town communications.

If you receive an unexpected payment request related to a permit, application, Planning or Zoning Board matter, or any other municipal process, do not reply to the suspicious email; do not send payment; and avoid clicking any included links or opening any unexpected attachments.

In addition to checking the sender’s actual email address, recipients of such emails are advised to contact the appropriate town department using contact information obtained independently from the official town website (not from the suspicious email), and ask the town to confirm whether the payment request and invoice are legitimate before providing any financial information.

If you have already provided banking information or sent money in response to a suspicious request, contact your financial institution immediately and notify the town.

Short URL: https://www.thecantoncitizen.com/?p=134783