Peterborough Town Planner Danica Miller said cyber criminals sent fraudulent invoices to zoning applicants after scraping online board packets for contact information.
In response, the Planning and Zoning Boards redacted contact information from online board packets.
According to Miller, past applicants notified the Office of Planning & Building they received fraudulent invoices requesting payment associated with their previous Planning and Zoning Board applications.
She emphasized the town had not been hacked nor were security risks present. “Many towns have experienced this,” she said. “Bots scrape meeting packets for contact information and then generate an invoice that’s sent to recipients via phone or email.”
Miller said the invoices are often poorly worded and easy to identify. “The attempts are crudely done. For instance, a Peterborough resident received an invoice requesting payment for a zoning application in Nantucket,” she said. She noted some applicants have received fake invoices from groups posing as the Select Board requesting payment. “The Select Board doesn’t ask for wire payments.”
The Zoning and Planning Boards decided redacting phone numbers, email and home addresses from online board packets was the best solution. “Printed packets will still have the information,” Miller said. “Emailed packets will also have the information, but they will be sent securely.”