Hingham, MA - A scam was attempted using an email address that was made to appear to be from the Town of Hingham Planning Board this week. The resident became suspicious and contacted the Town Hall before sending any money. 

On Friday, January 30, 2026 a resident reported to police that she received an email from an address that appeared to be from the Hingham Planning Board with an invoice requesting her to pay $3,000 that was due immediately. It required her to pay only via electronic payment (wire transfer only).

This resident is in the process of doing actual business with the Hingham Planning Board and recently paid a smaller permit fee so the receiving an email from the Planning Board would not be unexpected. This larger fee seemed suspicious and she called the Town Hall before wiring any payment and confirmed it was a scam.

The scammers in this case used an email address containing the words "planning", "hingham-ma" and "usa.com".  

Also this week Detectives were contacted by a Florida police department who were investigating a similar scam attempt. In their investigation, they discovered multiple forwarding emails addresses including one using the words "hingham-ma", "planning" and ending with "usa.com".    

The scammers easily find this information online because it is public information readily available on actual town/city websites. They also use variations of email address that appear to be from the actual city/town. They can easily change just a few letters in their false email address so at a quick glance, the person may believe the email is from the actual city/town.

Please remember an actual email address from a Town Hall department would be have a ".gov" at the end (government). 

If you receive an email, look at the actual full email address to verify or simply call the actual department at the Hingham Town Hall on a phone number listed on the Town's website (not the number listed in the suspicious email). Also, be suspicious if the payment is "due immediately" or if it can ONLY be made by a wire transfer or by an app. Payments could always be mailed or dropped off in person at the Town Hall. Those should be red flags to slow down and verify before doing anything. ### Contact P.I.O. Lt. Steven Dearth