Upper Arlington Warns of Fake City Invoices and Wire Requests
Scammers are lifting property and project details from agendas and online records to make bogus bills look real. The city says it never asks for a wire. Status: Active warning.
Upper Arlington is telling households and business owners to treat any unexpected bill that claims to come from City Hall with suspicion. In a news flash dated October 22, the city says scammers posing as Upper Arlington have been sending fake invoices and phishing messages, and that other cities across central Ohio and the rest of the state have seen the same thing in recent weeks and months.
What makes these hard to spot is the homework behind them. The city says the senders mine public meeting agendas and other online records, so a fake bill can name a real property, a real city project or real municipal work. Some permit applicants have also received emails saying an extra fee is owed and asking them to send it by wire transfer.
The city's answer to that last one is simple: Upper Arlington never asks for payment by wire. Before paying anything unexpected, call the Finance Department using contact details from the city's own website rather than a phone number, email or link printed on the invoice. An accurate address, a project name or an official-looking logo does not make a bill genuine, the notice adds, and nobody should open surprise attachments or hand over personal or banking details to an unverified request.
The city says it already redacts sensitive details in its permit database and has posted a fraud warning on its permit portal, though scammers can still pull information from other public sources. Anyone who has paid a suspicious invoice should file a report with the Upper Arlington Police Division and let Finance staff know about the request.
For UA residents and shop owners, especially anyone with a permit application open right now, the safe habit is to confirm every unexpected city charge by phone before money moves. Gahanna flagged a similar scheme aimed at its permit applicants last week, covered in our Gahanna story. Browse the Upper Arlington hub for more from the suburb, or the City section for alerts from other towns.
