There has been recent a recent spike in scams where threat actors masquerade as local and county planning and zoning departments to extract illegitimate land use application renewal payments and development-related fees from local businesses and residents. Widespread examples of this activity across the United States, wherein threat actors masquerade as the legitimate departments targeting victims, can be found doing an online search with the terms "scam zoning and planning email".
These emails are designed to create urgency and confusion and typically originate from addresses that closely resemble those of department employees. The fraudulent messages usually demand immediate payment via wire transfer and instruct recipients to communicate exclusively through email.
Metro Nashville does issue legitimate notifications regarding zoning and development fees; however, applicants are always asked to remit payment in person or via credit card at epermits.nashville.gov and are never instructed to pay via wire transfer. Legitimate Planning and Zoning emails are sent from official Metro Nashville addresses that end in "@nashville.gov." Any emails from other domains should be treated as suspicious and we strongly recommend you contact [email protected] or [email protected] if you have any questions about an email you receive. Do not use any contact information provided in the email, as that may not be legitimate.