The City of Irvine has recently been made aware of a phishing scam targeting applicants who have projects pending before the Planning Division/Commission. In this scheme, scammers pretend to be City officials requesting payments for development projects. So far, these emails have been originating from the email address Planning.CityofIrvineCA@usa.com. The scammers use project information that is publicly available to make the scam look more legitimate. Victims of this scam have been identified nationwide (FBI Bulletin) 

• Official City emails will only come from an “@cityofirvine.org” email address.
• Online payments (including credit/debit card payments) are made only through the City’s secure payment portal: https://arpayments.cityofirvine.org. We will never ask you to wire money to a bank account unsolicited.
• Payments by check or electronic bank transfer are accepted only using payment instructions provided by the City through official communications, and only if that payment method is first requested by an applicant.
• If you receive a payment request that seems unexpected or different from prior instructions, please do not respond to that email or submit payment.

If you have any questions or would like to verify a request for payment, please contact your assigned case planner directly using the contact information previously provided. You can also call the Planning Counter at 949-724-6308 with questions.