Help NowStart Practice

Scam alert

An Email About a Building Permit Asking You to Wire Money

Published · Arrives by an email

The short answer

Do not wire money because of an email about a building permit, even if it names your real address, a docket number, or a planning staff member you recognize. Government planning and permitting offices do not collect fees through an emailed invoice asking for a wire transfer. Call the office yourself, using the number on its official website or a past bill rather than anything in the email, and ask whether a payment is actually owed before you send anything.

What is happening

Boulder County's planning and permitting office said in September 2026 that property owners were being emailed with real addresses, docket numbers, and staff names attached, then asked to pay an invoice by wire transfer from an address outside the county's own domain. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center had already described the same pattern reaching city and county permit offices nationally earlier in the year.

How to recognize it

  • The email names your real property address, a docket or permit number, or a planning staff member's name.
  • It asks you to pay an invoice by wire transfer rather than through the office's own payment system.
  • The sender's email address is a personal-style domain, such as one ending in usa.com, or a close look-alike of the government domain rather than the office's real one.
  • The message creates urgency about a permit being delayed, fined, or cancelled if payment does not arrive quickly.

What to do instead

  1. Do not click a payment link or wire money based on the email alone.
  2. Call your planning or permitting office using the number on its official website or a past bill, not a number given in the email.
  3. Check the sender's full email address, not just the name it displays, for a domain that does not match the government office.
  4. Pay permit fees only through the office's own website or in person, the way you have before.

If it already happened

Responding to one of these is common and understandable. These steps are what people usually take next.

  1. Contact your bank right away if you sent a wire transfer, and ask whether it can still be recalled.
  2. Tell your planning or permitting office what happened so it can warn other property owners.
  3. Report it to the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at ic3.gov.
  4. Keep the email and any payment confirmation. They help both your bank and investigators.
Open Help Now

Common questions

Why did the email have my real address and permit number?
That kind of information is often public record, available through a county's own property and permit lookup tools, so having it does not confirm who actually sent the email.
Would a real planning office ever ask for a wire transfer?
Government planning and permitting offices typically collect fees through their own website or office window, not through an emailed invoice asking for a wire transfer to an outside account.
The email looked like it came from the county. Doesn't that make it real?
Not on its own. A message can display a government office's name while the actual sending address is a different, unrelated domain, which is why the full email address is worth checking before you act on anything it asks for.

Practice this safely

Practice calling an office yourself, using a number you already trust, before paying anything an email asks for.

Every story is fictional. There is no timer, no score, and no real message, payment, or account.

Start the four-story practice

Where this comes from

These links open the published sources in a new tab. The destination is shown before you open it.

The full guide on this

More recent alerts

This alert provides general educational information drawn from the sources above. It cannot determine whether a specific message you received is genuine, investigate an incident, or promise recovery or reimbursement.