Town of Munster Indiana

The Town of Munster is aware of a fraudulent email scam targeting individuals and businesses falsely claiming to be from the Town’s Plan Commission(referred to in email as "Town of Munster Planning Commission"). These emails have been sent from planning.brookfieldil.gov@usa.com or similar public email service, which is NOT a legitimate Town email address.

The scam email includes an attached fake invoice a screenshot of (which is shown below) requesting a wire transfer payment, which we do not accept as a valid form of payment. The invoice falsely uses the Town of Munster address but includes typographical errors.

These fraudulent emails are designed to appear official but are not associated with the Town of Munster in any way.  The scam email includes recent skimmed information from publicly available zoning documents and appears on a quick glance to be legitimate.  The emails are intended to cause a panic response to get a quick response.

The Town of Munster will never send out an email asking for payment via wire transfer, credit card or Automated Clearing House (ACH). Any applicant who receives an email requesting a wire transfer, credit card or ACH funds for application fees should immediately disregard the email.

Town staff and officials are taking this matter seriously. To ensure the legitimacy of any application fees, applicants are advised to:

• Carefully review the sender’s email address. All official Town of Munster emails will end with @munster.org. Be cautious of any communication claiming to be from the Town that does not follow this format.
• Never respond to emails requesting payment via wire transfer, credit card or ACH.
• Verify any invoices or communications by directly contacting the Town of Munster at 219-836-6900

If you have sent money or you feel you have been a victim of a scam, contact the Town of Munster Police Department’s non-emergency line at 219-660-0000. If you receive a suspicious email about the approval of a planning, zoning or building-related application or have doubts about an email’s authenticity, please contact the Town Hall at 219-836-6990.

Thank you for helping keep our community safe from predatory scams.