City of Cleveland warns of scammers posing as city employees using @usa.com emails to demand permit fees
The City of Cleveland warns of scammers posing as city staff who use @usa.com email addresses and fake invoices to demand wire-transfer payments for permits and fees. No victims are known so far.
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Source: clevelandohio.gov · published
What happened
On 4 November 2026 the City of Cleveland warned residents and businesses about scammers posing as city employees who use email addresses ending in @usa.com to demand fraudulent payments. The city said the scheme targets people dealing with permits, certificates of disclosure, rental registrations, lead safe certificates and civil tickets, and uses fake invoices and wire-transfer requests sent from these @usa.com addresses. The city said the contact information had been displayed on its vendor-hosted Permit Portal, which has since been removed, and that it has found no known victims so far.
How the scam works
According to the city, the scammers gathered contact details that were visible on the online Permit Portal and then emailed people who had business before the city, sending invoices that looked official and asking for payment by wire transfer. Wire transfers are hard to reverse once sent, which is why fraudsters prefer them. The city stressed that it never asks for payment by wire transfer, and that legitimate correspondence comes from its own domains, not from @usa.com addresses.
The city listed its genuine automated senders as Auto_Sender@mail.permitcleveland.org and customerservice@acipayonline.com, and said residents should be cautious of any payment request that does not come from an official City of Cleveland email. It said the matter has been referred to law enforcement and that it is working with the County Scam Squad. Residents who receive a suspicious message are asked to report it to phishing@clevelandohio.gov or to call 311, and to verify any permit or fee in person at City Hall, 601 Lakeside Avenue, before paying. The information comes from the City of Cleveland's warning; scammers.com has summarised it and not independently verified it.
Source
City of Cleveland public warning, 4 November 2026. Not independently verified by scammers.com.
Red flags
- Invoices or payment demands from an email address ending in @usa.com.
- A request to pay city fees by wire transfer.
- Messages about permits, rental registrations, lead safe certificates or civil tickets that press for payment.
- Senders that are not official City of Cleveland addresses.
- Pressure to pay quickly to avoid a penalty.
If you were targeted
- 1Do not pay any city fee by wire transfer; the City of Cleveland never asks for this.
- 2Check that email comes from an official city address, such as mail.permitcleveland.org.
- 3Verify any permit or fee in person at City Hall, 601 Lakeside Avenue, before paying.
- 4Report suspicious messages to phishing@clevelandohio.gov or call 311.
- 5Keep the invoice, email and any sender details if you report it.