LOWELL, Mich. -- The City of Lowell is warning community members that a new scam is targeting applicants seeking property permits or rezoning requests from the City's Planning Commission.
The emails appear to be coming from City Manager Michael Burns. However, the scams are coming from an account with a usa.com address. All City of Lowell emails end with ci.lowell.mi.us.
The emails contains information about the permit or rezoning request and also lays out the internal and Planning Commission review processes. The email then requests an application approval fee in order to reach the next step. The scammers then ask the community to email a payment for confirmation and documentation purposes.
"We want the community to know this is not a legitimate request from the City of Lowell," Burns said. "It is unfortunate someone is using online information we are required by law to make public to target community members in a malicious way."
Anyone who receives an email should not click any links, send any payments or open any attachments. Residents can call the city at (616) 897-8457 during regular business hours and report the email as spam and delete it. Residents can also file a complaint with the Michigan Attorney General Office at mi.gov/agcomplaints.
"We are grateful to the individuals who have reached out to us to ask about the email so we can help stop this scam in its tracks," said Burns.
The City of Lowell says they will never request payments via email without a phone call first.