Local agencies warn of permit fee, jury scams

On Tuesday, Feb. 3, the city of Carlton warned of email scams claiming to be from the planning department and requesting fees be paid by wire transfer.

“Carlton has been made aware of a scam targeting applicants, developers, and business owners. Scammers are sending emails that appear to come from the City of Carlton Planning Department requesting wire transfers or additional payments for permits and applications,” city officials announced in a press release. “The scam emails include invoices which at a glance could appear legitimate, making it more likely for unsuspecting victims to fall for the scam.”

Two of the fraudulent emails requested payments be sent to banks in Kansas City, Missouri, and San Francisco.

Carlton will not send email requests for wire transfers, and all official city of Carlton correspondence will come from an email ending in @ci.carlton.or.us.

Planning forms and applications are publicly available, and payments are accepted only through official city processes. Anyone receiving these suspicious emails should not respond and never send money or initiate a wire transfer.

Carlton residents receiving any of the scam emails should contact Carlton Police Chief Kevin Martinez at 503-852-3805. For questions about official permit fees or processes, call 503-852-7575.

In January, Yamhill County reported a similar scam claiming to be from the county’s planning department.

Deputy County Administrator/PIO Kevin Perkins previously told the News-Register “I’ve never seen a government agency require a wire transfer.”

At the county level, the emails were not random — they targeted planning permit applicants. The scam emails discouraged calling the planning department, which was an indication the emails were fraudulent.

Heather Richards, McMinnville Community Development Director, told the News-Register McMinnville has also experienced the same permitting fee scam as Carlton.

“What we have decided is that someone is picking up the contact information from the application that is in our meeting materials and then using that application to send out bogus invoices, with the applicant name, the docket number that we use, and the type of application that we are reviewing,” Richards said. “We have decided moving forward that we are going to redact all of that information in our meeting materials, and we hope that will reduce the number of scams.”

Another scam targeting Yamhill County residents involves threats of being arrested or fined for missing jury duty, the Yamhill County Circuit Court reported. The scammer claims they have a warrant for people’s arrest because they failed to respond to a federal jury summons and tells them that they need to pay money.

No fines or warrants are issued for individuals missing jury duty, court officials said.

People making these calls or sending these messages often pretend to be court officials or police officers. They demand money or personal information.