Washington County officials have issued a warning to residents and applicants involved with the Department of Planning and Zoning about fraudulent emails that are falsely requesting wire transfers for application fees. The scam appears to involve individuals impersonating County staff through emails crafted to look like official government communications, but no data breach has occurred.
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According to the County, the emails use publicly available information from the government’s website to target recipients. While the messages mimic legitimate correspondence, they instruct users to send planning application payments via wire transfer—a payment method that Washington County does not accept under any circumstances.
The government has reiterated that official emails will only come from the “@washco-md.net” domain. Any requests for payment or document submissions from unofficial email addresses should be considered fraudulent. The Department of Planning and Zoning has also emphasized that its only valid contact email is askplanning@washco-md.net.
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To protect against falling victim to the scam, residents are advised not to reply to suspicious emails or click on any links. Instead, potential scam attempts should be reported directly to the department’s official email. If there is uncertainty about any correspondence, individuals are encouraged to call the department directly for verification.
Washington County’s Information Technology Department is actively monitoring the situation and has implemented measures to maintain the security of its systems.
Article by multiple RFHC contributors, based upon information from a press release issued by Washington County Government.
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