The City of Newport is warning residents and businesses of a sophisticated scam targeting individuals with pending or current applications before the city.
The scam involves fraudulent emails containing fake invoices requesting payment for permit review or Planning Commission application fees. The emails use official city branding and direct recipients to send wire transfers to complete permit processing. The letters claim to be from the Newport Planning Commission and reference valid applications from public dockets.
The city emphasizes that it will never request permit or application fees via wire transfer and will never ask for payment outside of formal channels. All official payments are processed through official city systems or in person at city buildings.
Signs of the scam include invoices originating from the “City of Newport Planning Commission,” requests for wire transfer payments, instructions to reply by email to obtain payment details, and email addresses not associated with official city domains — @cityofnewport.com or @newportri.gov. Recipients should be suspicious of any message sent from generic domains such as Gmail or USA.com.
Anyone who receives a suspicious invoice is advised not to send payment or reply to the email. Those who may have already sent payment should contact their bank immediately and report the incident to local law enforcement.
To report a suspicious communication, contact the Newport IT Department at 401-845-5400 or the Newport Police Department at 401-847-1306.