Sacramento and neighboring Folsom have quietly scrubbed developer contact details from public permit pages after a run of fake invoice attempts that mined project filings to target applicants. The move comes after reports of official looking emails demanding thousands of dollars and directing recipients to wire money, prompting staff and developers to back the redactions as a way to blunt the fraud while still keeping core project information public.
As reported by the Sacramento Business Journal, the City of Sacramento blacked out developer contact information on public facing project applications after three developers reported suspicious emails that claimed to be from the city and requested hefty fee payments. City officials told the Journal they moved quickly to pull that contact information while they study longer term changes to the online portal.
Folsom’s Community Development page now carries a fraud alert that warns of fake invoices using the city logo and email addresses such as “[email protected]” and “[email protected]” to solicit wire transfers. The notice urges anyone who receives a questionable message to forward it to the Planning division for review and directs applicants to use the official ePermit system for any payments…