Bellevue resident Greg Ballantyne received a convincing email last week from what appeared to be the Bellevue Planning and Zoning Commission requesting a wire transfer of $4,950 for “administrative processing” and “final review and approval” of his design review application for a new building.

Ballantyne’s new building was on the P&Z’s meeting agenda for the following Monday, so he assumed the email was legitimate and transferred the fee from his D.L. Evans bank account to what was listed as a Wells Fargo account in Oregon.

Ballantyne soon found out he had been scammed out of his money by an unknown perpetrator that had apparently used public information in the P&Z commissioners’ Monday meeting documents to target him. He has yet to recover his money.

“I feel screwed,” he said. “I had a

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