Larimer, Greeley warn permit, land-use applicants about scams

Larimer County and the City of Greeley issued statements Wednesday warning those applying for permits and land-use reviews about a nationwide scam impersonating local governments.

The warnings follow a similar alert issued by the City of Fort Collins last December, which advised that scammers were sending emails falsely claiming to represent the city and asking for money. Those incidents forced Fort Collins to restrict public access to its development-review documents.

Larimer County’s alert said scammers using local data are posing as county officials and asking for money for property-tax-related issues.

Meanwhile, Greeley officials said they recently received a report of a fraudulent message targeting an applicant with an active land-use case. The message appears to have used publicly available application information to look legitimate. City officials warn that an applicant’s name, project address or case number does not confirm that a message came from the city government.

The emails are mostly being sent to people with active development reviews or related permit applications. Scammers are posing as city or county officials who work with zoning, permitting, and development. While posing as county or city officials, these scam emails are requesting fraudulent payments.

Fraudulent emails may contain county branding and logos, but their email addresses may end in @gmail.com or @outlook.com. The county stated that emails from county officials should only end in @larimer.gov or @co.larimer.co.us, while Greeley officials said their emails should end in @greeleygov.com .

These emails often contain convincing fee breakdowns in the main email body or as a PDF file and include things such as approval of permits with immediate payment, wire payment requests and requests to communicate only through email.

Larimer County and Greeley officials emphasized that they never request wire payments or immediate payments and don’t restrict communications with their residents to email only.

Greeley officials said that city’s eTrakit system ensures safety when dealing with permits, and invoices are emailed only upon request by contractors or homeowners. They urged Greeley residents to use the official eTrakit portal for all permit payments.

Applicants for land-use permits in Greeley are urged to contact the city staff member handling their case using previously verified contact information.

Greeley residents who receive suspicious invoices or payment requests should verify their legitimacy and contact the city at 970-350-9830 or [email protected]. Larimer County is urging those who receive any phishing scams to verify the actual information through the Larimer County Community Development Department by email or phone call.

Red flags that can indicate a scam email include rushed, urgent language, requests for payment or messages that encourage you to click something.

Fort Collins planners  said any requests for payment will only ever come from a @fortcollins.gov email domain, and advised applicants to “look out for emails requesting higher fees than you anticipated or that seem to come from the Planning and Zoning Commission rather than the staff you know are assigned to your application.”

Applicants in Fort Collins are advised to submit payments only by check dropped off or mailed to 281 N. College Ave. or by credit card on the city’s Citizen Portal, never by wire transfer or credit card on a different site. Scam emails can be forwarded to [email protected] so the city can track them.

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