Watch out for scams related to permits
I was very nearly taken in this week by a scam, and I go through phishing/IT security training once a year.
We are currently in the process of getting a city required variance for our rear setback.
I received an email that looked to be from our local planning/zoning department stating the details of our variance request (address, variance petition number, variance details) and the requirement that we pay the attached invoice via wire.
I should've caught it since it was a request for a wire and/or hovering over the sender's purported name to see that it ended in @usa.com (never a valid domain name for a local govt agency)....
But this is an unfamiliar process to me, never having gone through it, and I'd heard that we'd have to pay some thousands for the variance, so while it seemed a bit off - enough for me to double check that the signatory of the email is an actual person in our city planning/zoning department - I contacted the sender to let them know that I had initiated the wire as requested.
Fortunately it was after 4 pm Eastern, so the wire wouldn't go through until the next day. Later that night as my brain did its usual ruminating prior to falling asleep, all of a sudden I got a really bad feeling. I called my bank at 11:40 pm and was fortunately able to cancel the wire.
Lesson learned - especially when navigating an unfamiliar process - don't trust any incoming request for money and double check everything. I could've and should've asked the engineer who submitted the variance for us if this was a legit request; I also could've called the planning department to ask about it. If I had thought to hover over the sender's address, I would've also been clued in that this was not legit.
Hope this helps someone else out there.