| Lancaster Eagle-Gazette
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Fairfield County officials are warning residents and businesses about a phishing scam in which criminals impersonate local government officials.
The scheme involves scammers posing as city or county staff and requesting fraudulent payments for planning and zoning permits, according to a community announcement.
The criminals are using publicly available permit information to identify potential targets. They often contact victims by email, using official-looking language and documents.
The messages may include city or county letterhead, seals and the names of officials — all to convince recipients to send money or redirect funds.
The County Commissioners’ Association of Ohio and the FBI have also issued warnings about similar scams, which target individuals and companies involved in the permitting process.
Officials said there are also related cyber risks involving fake county auditor websites and payment redirection scams targeting county governments and other public entities.
Cybercrime a growing concern
Ohio Auditor of State Keith Faber has highlighted the growing threat of cybercrime against local governments.
“Every week we find out more and more local governments, more and more entities are being hit by ransomware, by vendor redirects,” Faber said, according to the announcement. “And the numbers that come across my desk aren’t small. They’re in the tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
How to protect yourself
Fairfield County officials are urging residents and businesses to be vigilant and take precautions to protect themselves from falling victim to these scams.
Here are steps residents and businesses can take to protect themselves:
- Do not assume emails are legitimate based on the use of city or county letterhead, seals, names of officials, or proper spelling and grammar.
- Verify the email address, including the domain name, matches the email address of the official with whom you are corresponding and does not contain extraneous characters or misspellings.
- Check the city or county’s official website for notices about ongoing impersonation schemes.
- Call the city or county government, using the phone number listed on the official website, to verify outstanding fees.
For more information about phishing, visit fbi.gov.
This story was created with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Journalists were involved in every step of the information gathering, review, editing and publishing process. Learn more at cm.usatoday.com/ethical-conduct/.
