The City of Bozeman warned customers on April 7 about a phishing scheme targeting individuals applying for development project permits. The city advised residents to follow specific recommendations to protect their personal and financial information.
This alert is important as it addresses the safety of those involved in development projects, who may be at risk of having their sensitive data compromised by scammers impersonating city officials.
According to the city’s statement, applicants should only use the official Click2Gov payment portal when paying fees for planning, building, or engineering services. Access to Click2Gov is provided either through a direct link sent via ProjectDox tasks or from the Bozeman Development Center website. The city emphasized that any requests for wired funds are likely fraudulent.
Residents are also urged to check email domains carefully. Official communication from Bozeman employees will come from addresses ending in bozeman.net or bozemanmt.gov, or through ProjectDox at https://bozeman-mt-us.avolvecloud.com/. The statement warned against emails from unfamiliar domains such as those ending in @usa.com.
Before clicking on hyperlinks in emails, applicants should hover over links to confirm they lead to official websites associated with the City of Bozeman. If there is any doubt about an email’s legitimacy, recipients are encouraged to contact Bozeman Community Development by phone at 406-582-2260 or via email at building@bozemanmt.gov or planningtech@bozemanmt.gov.
The warning follows an FBI announcement dated March 9 that described an emerging phishing scheme involving criminals posing as city and county officials nationwide. According to the FBI, these criminals use publicly available permit information “to identify potential victims and increase the legitimacy of the scam.” Victims have been identified across the country under Alert Number: I-030926-PSA.
The City of Bozeman thanked its customers for their vigilance and encouraged anyone who suspects fraudulent activity related to permits or payments to seek verification.
