Scammers Mimic Montclair Planning Board, Town Issues Alert

MONTCLAIR, NJ — Did you get an email from the “Montclair Planning Board” asking you for a wire transfer payment? It’s a scam, local authorities say.

On Thursday, the township issued an alert about an email scheme that involves someone impersonating the Montclair Planning Board, Board of Adjustment or Planning Department.

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The scam appears to target applicants with matters before the planning board or board of adjustment, likely using information from publicly available meeting agendas and documents, the township said.

The scammers may use a variety of fake sender addresses that appear official and request payment for purported planning board-related matters. The fraudulent messages may include fake invoices and instructions to submit payment by wire transfer. These emails are not from Montclair Township, authorities said.

The planning department will never request payment via wire transfer, Montclair authorities said.

“Do not click any links or open any attachments contained in these messages,” the township advised. “Do not reply, send payment, or share any personally identifiable information or other sensitive information, including financial or medical information.”

Got an email already? Here’s what to do, authorities said:

“If you receive one of these emails, do not respond, click any links, or send payment. Please forward the message to info@montclairnjusa.org (as an attachment, if possible) so the Township can investigate. You should also report the message as phishing using your email provider's built-in reporting feature (for example, “Report phishing” in Gmail or “Report > Phishing” in Outlook). After reporting it, delete the message. Anyone who has sent payment in response to one of these emails should contact the Montclair Police Department at (973)-744-1234, and file a report with the FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center at www.ic3.gov.”

Residents and businesses who need to verify any planning-related communication is genuine can contact the planning department at (973)-509-4954.

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