The FBI released Public Service Announcement “Criminals Impersonating City and County Officials in Phishing Emails for Planning and Zoning Permits.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the Center for Internet Security (CIS) Cyber Threat Intelligence
(CTI) team are publishing this product to provide updates to State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial government
entities (SLTTs) about a scam in which threat actors masquerade as local and county planning and zoning
departments to extract illegitimate land use application renewal payments from local businesses and residents.
CIS CTI first reported this scam in the December 2025 advisory OCAR-2025-8 titled, “Nationwide Zoning and
Planning Scam Targeting SLTT Residents.” In March 2026, the FBI released Public Service Announcement I-
030926-PSA titled, “Criminals Impersonating City and County Officials in Phishing Emails for Planning and Zoning
Permits.”
Since this report, the FBI and CIS CTI have continued to observe widespread examples of this activity across the
United States, including variations featuring several new shifts in tactics. Many SLTT entities have independently
released advisories on this activity. Readers can identify these advisories by running a simple search engine
query for “scam zoning and planning email.” SLTTs should consider disseminating messaging about this activity
to their constituents and the companies with whom they have business, noting their official government email
domains for correspondence.
