HINGHAM, MA — Police are warning residents about a scam involving a fake email address designed to appear as if it came from the town’s Planning Board.
A resident reported Friday that she received an email with an invoice requesting immediate payment of $3,000 via wire transfer only.
The resident was conducting actual business with the Hingham Planning Board and had recently paid a smaller permit fee, making an email from the department not unexpected.
The larger fee seemed suspicious, and she called Town Hall before wiring any payment and confirmed it was a scam.
The scammers used an email address containing the words “planning,” “hingham-ma” and “usa.com.”
Detectives were also contacted this week by a Florida police department investigating a similar scam attempt.
In that investigation, police discovered multiple forwarding email addresses including one using the words “hingham-ma,” “planning” and ending with “usa.com.”
Scammers find information online because it is public information readily available on actual town and city websites, police said.
They also use variations of email addresses that appear to be from the actual municipality by changing just a few letters so at a quick glance, the person may believe the email is from the actual town.
Police said an actual email address from a Town Hall department would have a “.gov” at the end.
Residents who receive an email should look at the actual full email address to verify or call the actual department at Hingham Town Hall using a phone number listed on the town’s website, not the number listed in the suspicious email.
Police said residents should be suspicious if payment is “due immediately” or if it can only be made by wire transfer or by an app, as payments could always be mailed or dropped off in person at Town Hall.
